


Legal Alien

by esama



Category: Harry Potter - Fandom, Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1
Genre: Alternate Universe, Crossover, Crossover Pairings, Out of Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-04
Updated: 2015-03-04
Packaged: 2018-03-16 07:26:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 35,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3479477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/esama/pseuds/esama
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Going to high school maybe wasn't a good idea, but at least the Air Force got him an apartment from a good neighbourhood and with interesting neighbours.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on fanfiction.net around 2008  
> Proofread by Darlene

_'This wasn't one of my best ideas,'_ Jack O'Neill mused to himself while heading towards home after his very first day in high school… again. Except it wasn't his first day and it wasn't his home, now was it? No, it was just an apartment building near the high school, arranged for him by the Air Force. It had the bare necessities, he got just enough money per month to feed himself and that's… about it.

 _'No, this wasn't even one of my average ideas,'_ he continued, absently kicking a piece of rock that lay in the middle of the side walk. It had been a fascinating idea to be sure. After all those times Carter had babbled away in technogeek and the times when Daniel had worked himself into a rant over some historical event or figure Jack himself knew nothing about… after all the times he had just felt _stupid_ next to those two, he had wanted to learn. To be a bit better, to understand it all. To feel… not so stupid.

Of course, it was just hindsight. It wasn't like he could go back with what ever he could now learn and do it all over again, no way in hell. In that aspect it was rather meaningless. But at the same time… well, despite feeling stupid so goddamn often, he wasn't. He knew perfectly well that once he was old enough, the Air Force would whisk him away and he would once again become part of the oh so honourable military establishment. And once they would, a little bit of book smarts wouldn't hurt, huh?

But, oh _god_ , the kids at the school. Jack knew childishness, hell, he revelled in it; but this? Had he really been that shallow back when he had been that young? Had life really revolved around girls, sports, causing trouble, partying on the weekends and outsmarting teachers and parents over some stupid things which, in the long run, had no meaning? And had high schools been so vicious back then? Had the girls been so mean and the boys so thoughtless? Had skipping school been so "cool" back then too?

Maybe it was because of what he had seen and what he now knew. He could no longer see why the geeks were losers and why they had to be bullied -- Carter and Daniel had saved his ass so many times that he had started to respect the so called geeks. They had the brains, after all, and it was the brains that exploded suns and ascended into higher planes of existence, not the brawns and their fists.

And what did looks have to do with anything? There was a girl in his new class who had braces and more zits than Jack had cared to count -- and apparently because of that everyone hated her. He remembered that maybe, back when he had been young, someone might've been teased about something like that but he just couldn't see it anymore. The braces would make her teeth straight and the zits would go away once she got through puberty. Hell, he had his own share of the goddamn things.

He sighed and stuffed his hands into the pockets of his slightly too big pants. Despite looking as young as he did, he felt as old as he knew he was. And that was the main problem. The novelty of being young and in high school again had lasted for about an hour and then he realised how things really were. He was in _high school_ , surrounded by goddamn _teenagers,_ and he himself was what? He was almost fifty! Hadn't anyone realised just how _weird_ that was?

 _'Well, I do now,'_ he grunted to himself and looked up as he came to the apartment building where he was supposed to live. It was nice enough, and in a decent neighbourhood -- the yard was well taken care off and there was a small playground just in front of the building. By the looks of it, it was well used -- even now there was a small boy running around the playground, the kid's father walking after him with an amused look about his face.

 _'Huh, locals,'_ Jack mused, eyeing the man and the boy. After a moment of thinking about it, he stepped forward. _'Making friends here won't hurt, especially since it seems like I'm not going anywhere.'_

The man was tall and thin and he had a messy black hair and glasses. He didn't look like the bookish type though, he stood too straight and too proud. When Jack came closer, he started to realise just how young the man was. Younger than Daniel had been when they had first met, probably not even twenty five. Yet the kid was probably over four.

"Careful, Teddy, you don't want to fall again," the man called to the boy who was enthusiastically tackling the climbing frame. The boy just grinned and climbed, getting an amused sigh from the man. Then the man noticed Jack. "Hullo, there. You lost, kid?"

 _'He's British,'_ Jack thought with surprise. "Yeah, I'm fine," he answered quickly. Little awkwardly he motioned at the apartment building. "I, uh… I just moved in."

"Oh, so you're the one who rented old Frank's apartment. They were moving your stuff in just few days ago…" the black haired man nodded thoughtfully before raising his eyebrow slightly. "You're a bit younger than I thought," he mused before shrugging and offering his hand. "Well, welcome to the neighbourhood. I'm Harry and that rascal there is Teddy," he motioned at the kid who was wearing a beanie.

"J-Jonathan," Jack said while taking the hand. It had been his decision to go by Jonathan rather than by Jack in his new life -- just to put some distance between himself and, well, himself. He still struggled a bit with the name, after being called Jack for so long. "You been livin' here long?" he asked. "I mean… you're obviously not from here."

"No, I'm not. Teddy and me, we've lived here about three years now," the man said, glancing at the boy who was struggling to climb higher. "Moved here straight from the UK." There was a bit of melancholy in his tone before he shook his head and glanced at Jack. "I haven't seen your parent's around here yet."

"That's because, uh, I don't have any anymore," Jack answered a bit awkwardly. Seeing the worried frown that appeared to the man's face, he quickly struggled to explain. He had been told not to make too much noise about himself. Saying that he was being taken care off by the Air Force wouldn't work either, so… "My uncle got me the apartment so that I could go to the local high school. He lives outside the town, so the way to school would've been a bit long otherwise."

"Hm," the man hummed, raking his green eyes up and down Jack's frame before nodding and turning to look at the kid again. "Bit reckless of your uncle to leave you alone like that… but who am I to judge," he folded his hands and shook his head before glancing Jack. "I live on the fifth floor, in apartment twenty nine. We're there most of the time so if you need anything… you can come and knock."

Jack smiled awkwardly. _'Ah, yeah, probably not,'_ he thought, having no intention of asking anyone's help. He could take care of himself perfectly well -- he had for dozens of years already. "I'll keep that in mind," he said with a nod, before motioning at the building. "I have some homework to do. It was, uh… it was nice meetin' you."

"You too, Jonathan," the man nodded.

 _'Well, he seemed decent enough,'_ the former Air Force Colonel mused while heading for the front door of the apartment building. He hated living in apartment buildings -- too many people and too much noise -- but maybe this one wouldn't be so bad. _'Maybe the rest of the folk living here won't be bad either.'_

Now he only needed to get adjusted to this whole high school thing and keeping himself sane in the midst of teenagers and he would be fine. Maybe.

 

* * *

 

Harry -- whose last name was Potter apparently -- was at the playground surprisingly often with Teddy -- whose last name on other hand was Lupin. Sometimes when Jack left for school the two would be there and more often than not they were there when Jack came home from school. Sometimes there were other kids and other parents there, sometimes Harry was talking with that pretty blonde mother with the twin girls or the young parents of two boys and sometimes Teddy was chasing said girls with the boys.

It was obvious that Harry didn't have a job and that he worked as a full time dad. Single parent too, which was something Jack could almost relate to but not quite. Thinking about children and parenthood was painful because it made him think of Charlie and Sara, but he still couldn't help but wonder what had happened to Teddy's mother and how come the father and the son had different last names.

But in the end it wasn't any of his business.

There weren't any other teens in the apartment building. There was an older girl who was in university and studying all the time, and there were the kids, the eldest of them barely eight, but that was it. Somehow Jack was relieved about it. He was already fairly certain that he wouldn't be able to make any friends in the high school -- he and the kids had barely anything in common -- so he was glad that he didn't have to go through trying and failing at the place where he lived.

Instead he did what he was supposed to. He tried to study. It wasn't nearly as easy as he had thought that it would be and despite his age he wasn't immediately the prodigy of the class. It had been a very long time since he had gone through high school and college and it seemed like everything from math to literature had changed whilst he had been busy growing wrinkles. So passing wasn't exactly obvious and he actually had to study -- which he hated. With a passion.

Soon he realised that he was prone to getting sudden urges to see if the Simpson's were on -- even though he knew better -- every time he tried to study. Decades of acting was integrated into his very core and no matter how useful that skill had been in SGC, he knew he couldn't pass his classes by drawing doodles and trying to look like he was doing something important.

"You wouldn't happen to know anythin' about linear algebra?" Jack asked Harry one day after he had decided to take a break from his math homework before he would stray off to see if anything interesting was on TV.

"I'm afraid I've never been much good when to comes to maths and such," the man said apologetically, his eyes now and then straying to Teddy who was building sand castles with the twin girls. "You could ask Cecilia. She's majoring in maths, or something similar."

"Cecilia… oh, right. The college girl," Jack nodded before realising what the man had said. "You never went to college?"

The man shook his head and smiled with strange bitterness. "Never went to high school either," he said with a sigh before scratching his head. "So I'm not going to be any help with that sort of thing. Sorry."

"It's okay, I suck with that stuff too," the former Air Force Colonel said, looking at the man curiously. "What did you do since you didn't go to school?"

"A lot of very stupid things," Harry answered with a dry chuckle.

With the man being such a dedicated father to Teddy -- hell, he wouldn't let the kid stray from his sight for even five minutes -- it was hard for Jack to imagine the man being reckless in any way. Or maybe that was it. Maybe he had done so many stupid things that he was wiser for it. Wiser and cautious. Just like Jack himself after leaving his gun lying around.

 

* * *

 

Jack missed the SGC more than he would've liked, more than was comfortable, more than he was really allowed to. He missed the Stargate and going to other worlds, despite all the times it had almost gotten him killed and all the pain it had given him. He missed Daniel, even the man's annoying habit of making Jack wish there was a discreet way to tear one's hair. He missed Carter and her ability to make him feel like his brain cells were in a lower level of evolution than hers. He missed Teal'c and the man's constant ability to unknowingly remind Jack that he wasn't getting any younger. Except he had and it definitely hadn't made things better.

 _'Maybe I should start going to the gym or something,'_ he mused more than once. His fifteen year old body wasn't in top condition, exactly. If anything, he was scrawny. But what point would there be in going to a gym? It wasn't like he would have any use for physical strength in this new life of his. _'Except if I go for sports or something. And I'm not.'_

Being so bored all the time was what bothered him the most. Back in SGC and in the body of old man, the dull and quiet moments had been rare. Two missions per week and unscheduled incoming wormholes every now and then -- a megalomaniac or two every two months or so. And of course, every now and then they had gotten the chance to save the planet in one way or another. He had been too old for that sort of thing but _damn_ if he didn't miss it.

It was possible -- highly probable more likely -- that he would be taken back into the program one day. Once he was old enough he would be taken in by the Air Force again and maybe he would even get stationed at the SGC eventually. But how many years until then? More than he could handle right then, that was for sure. And would he have to go through the rank ladder? Going from Colonel to airman, that didn't sound too nice.

 _'Whether I want that or not is another thing too,'_ Jack thought. The Air force had been his life for so many years, and when he thought about it… there were better ways of living. But it was, for him, probably the only way he could get back into the life he had been forced to leave behind. There was no way in hell he would ever have the right qualifications for a civilian contractor. Unlike Daniel and Lee, he just didn't have the brains for that sort of thing. _'No matter how much I study now, I'll never get to their level.'_

So the Air Force or the military in general was his only ticket back to the Stargate program. Though he supposed that he could live with being part of the X-303 program too, next to Stargate that was possibly the sweetest posting on Earth. Either way the military was the way for him to go. Easy way too, given his history. He had been part of the establishment long enough to know they wouldn't let someone like him go. Someone with expertise, training and time to spare. He was probably their very favourite future recruit.

 _'And for that, I don't exactly need an education.'_ He knew as much. The Air Force probably would've offered him other possibilities, his older self certainly had, but he had chosen otherwise. Because of the nagging feeling of inferiority which the elder version of himself was no doubt happier ignoring. Because he had been given a second chance to prepare for the unknown future. Because he had the chance to make more out of himself than he had the first time around.

And because of that he stayed. No matter how he missed Stargate and everyone and everything involved, no matter how boring it got and no matter how he felt like he was going insane, he stayed right where he was. He stayed and struggled to understand what the teachers were lecturing about.

 

* * *

 

"You know, you could probably take some courses or something if you want to get a high school diploma and a degree and stuff," Jack said to Harry one day while he was outside reading a book -- for his English class. "I think there's a way to take some of them online too."

"Hm," the man hummed, eyeing the five year old who was playing tag with the other children. "I guess I could," he said with slight disinterest.

Jack glanced at him. He was well set thanks to the Air Force and his former life and all that, but Harry didn't have any of that. No education, no job, and a kid? How did the man manage to pay his bills not to mention about renting an apartment from a block as nice as theirs? "Education might help you, uh, get a job and stuff," he pointed out cautiously.

Harry glanced at him and then chuckled. "I'm not exactly poor, Jonathan," he answered with amusement. "Nor am I unemployed, not really."

"Oh?" Jack raised his eyebrows and tilted his head to the side. He had certainly never seen the man leave for work. In fact he had never seen the man without Teddy being somewhere near. So he had to work from home and with loose hours. "What do you do?"

"I'm a novelist," the man answered with a shrug, his eyes straying back to the kids as one of them fell with a loud thud. The fall didn't seem to slow the kid down though, because immediately he was back on his feet and dashing after Teddy who was giggling loudly. "You don't need an education to use your imagination," Harry added and then chuckled. "That sounded almost like a quote."

"Novelist? You write books and stuff?" Jack asked. _'Is that sort of job actually profitable?'_

"Yeah. I write fantasy novels," Harry shrugged again.

"Cool. Can I read them?"

"I can get you copies if you want, but only if you promise not to tell that I wrote them," the man grinned at him. "I write under a pen name and no one here knows what I do. I'd like to keep it that way."

Harry's books -- which were written under the name of Evan Jameson -- were almost like fairytales, telling stories of a world of witches and wizards and an incredible school of magic. With a little research Jack found that they weren't only well liked but bestsellers almost everywhere they had been released. It was no wonder too. Jack loathed reading with a passion, but still managed to read all three books from the man within a week.

So, Harry wasn't exactly a bum. In fact it seemed like the man, who had seemed like nothing but a quiet dedicated single father at first, was possibly the wealthiest man in Colorado Springs. After realising that, Jack felt rather stupid for worrying after something like the man's education -- it seemed like he had no need for it. That was, of course, until Harry asked him if he knew anything about computers.

"I thought about what you said, and I guess it wouldn't hurt to get a few courses done in my free time," the man answered when he asked why he was interested in getting one now. "Ever since I hired him, my editor hasn't stopped whining about my spelling so I think I could at least get that sorted out."

"I don't really understand computers either," Jack answered with a frown. "But I think we could check some computer stores out."

So they did and Harry got his computer. Jack offered to help set it up but the man politely refused. The former Colonel still had the impression that it took Harry the better part of a month to learn how to turn the thing on and off without making mistakes, but the man seemed fine with the slow process. When it came to time and spending it, Harry was the most laid back man on Earth. He was more likely to go out to play with Teddy than do anything productive. Which was why Jack had to ask him if he had ever fished.

"Can't say I have. I've never had the chance I guess," Harry answered, looking at him curiously. "I guess you have, Jonathan?"

"Well yeah, of course. I used to fish a lot at my, ah, uncle's house," Jack nodded, struggling not to think of the said house as his house. "There was a pond there. No fish in it, but that's not necessary."

"Why fish when there's nothing to fish for?" the man asked amusedly.

"Because it's fun. You gotta try it sometime with Teddy. Seriously."

About four months after Jack had regained his oh so wonderful youth, Harry took him and Teddy fishing. While Teddy was happier throwing rocks and poking at the bugs on the shore, Harry took to fishing like, well, like a fish to water. If Jack hadn't already decided that he liked the man, that would've been the start of a beautiful friendship. It was especially beautiful since Harry bought him his own fishing gear, something he couldn't have afforded on his own with the measly allowance from the Air Force.

Things got even better when Jack found out that every Saturday night, Harry and Teddy had a habit of stargazing. After finding out that Jack knew a thing or two about the stars -- it was one subject at school he had absolutely no problems with -- Harry had invited him to these stargazing sessions. It was nice and Harry even had a telescope – an ancient, ancient thing which surprisingly enough worked just as well as the more modern models. Teddy definitely liked stargazing more than he liked fishing. He always asked them to point the telescope at Sirius first.

"My godfather's name was Sirius," Harry explained with amusement, gently adjusting the beanie on Teddy's head while the boy was peering through the telescope. "I've told stories about him to Teddy and since then he's decided that my godfather Sirius is living on the Sirius star."

 _'That system doesn't have life in it,'_ Jack mused. "There are actually two Sirius stars, you know," he said out loud. "Sirius A and Sirius B. A is a spectral type star, a white main sequence… and B is a white dwarf. They're so close and A is so bright that you can't see B with the naked eye." He paused. _'Did I just go geek for a moment?'_

"I'll take your word for it, Jonathan," Harry chuckled, peering up at the night sky through his glasses. "I prefer just to think of stars as pretty bright dots in the night sky. I leave further analysis for those who are better at it than me."

 _'Some of those pretty bright dots don't only have life on them, but creatures who would like to see Earth bite the dust,'_ Jack mused before shaking the thought away. Currently that wasn't his worry. Folding his hands he gazed up to the sky, wondering if SG1 were out there somewhere right then, or were they pretending to lead boring lives on Earth.

"It's incredible though. There's so much empty space out there," Harry murmured. "Whilst down here it seems like every corner is so crowded."

"Yeah," Jack mumbled, even though he knew that space wasn't nearly as empty as people thought. "Maybe one day we will fill the empty spaces."

Harry chuckled while crouching beside Teddy. "What do you see, kiddo?" he asked softly, rubbing his hand over the boy's shoulders gently.

"Sirius. It doesn't look like a dog to me," the boy answered, offering the telescope to the man. Jack wasn't sure that he didn't imagine the sudden flash of pain in the man's eyes just before he bent to look through the old equipment.

 

* * *

 

They celebrated Teddy's birthday in April. The kid turned six and Harry was understandably the proudest father around. The kids in the neighbourhood were of course all invited, as was Jack. It was the first time Jack saw Harry's apartment, and he had to say that he was a bit more curious about it than about the games being played by the kids. There were a lot of candles. Lots and lots of candles and almost no lamps whatsoever. And like with Teal'c and his countless candles, Jack found himself wondering how long it actually took to light them all.

But on that day the only candles that burned were on Teddy's birthday cake, blown out by a powerful huff of lungs which were now six years old. After that there was cake -- very good cake which Harry had apparently made himself -- and then there were presents. Jack hadn't had the money to buy anything special but Teddy seemed delighted by the picture book of astronomy. As the kid proudly explained his to friends what stars were and how many planets there were, Jack couldn't help but wonder if he was creating the Carter of a new generation.

It was a surprisingly gratifying thought.

Later, after he had returned to his apartment, Jack realised that the birthday party had been the first time he had seen Teddy's hair. Always whilst outside, the boy was wearing a beanie or some sort of hat. This time he hadn't been. _'Well, it wasn't much of a shock really,'_ he mused, thinking back to the boy's messy black hair. _'It's just natural that he would take after his dad.'_

 

* * *

 

Jack could remember how once upon a time, summer holidays had been the best time of his life. Not so much anymore. He had gotten through the spring semester with dignity, somewhat, and now he found months on his hands and nothing to do with them. Whilst the others in his school had bragged about the holiday plans they had, and places their parents were going to take them, Jack wasn't going anywhere, nor was he doing anything. And these days sitting home doing nothing but watching TV wasn't as glamorous as it had once been.

Harry seemed to notice his boredom, though. "I was thinking of taking Teddy to the lake. He likes to swim there," the man said. "You can join us if you want to."

Jack did join them, on more than a few occasions at that. He didn't exactly like swimming, certainly not as much as Teddy did, but it was fun enough and a good way to pass time. He and Harry spent almost every trip to the beach entertaining Teddy, who had the most hilarious swim hat ever. Jack kept getting distracted by the eyes and the fins on it and swore that the fish hat thingy was watching him. "It's not a fish, it's _Nemo_!" Teddy kept insisting, but Jack was happy to forget it just so that he could see the kid stomp his foot so hilariously.

Teddy was special, Jack had concluded a while ago. Not like slightly-slower-than-most special or a whole-lot-faster-than-most special either. Jack couldn't exactly say what about the kid was different in comparison to other kids, but Teddy was different. He _felt_ different every time Jack saw him. Which was strange because Teddy had a perfect American accent, it was Harry's strictly British way of speaking that usually turned heads. Female heads.

"You know Harry, those ladies over there would _really_ like your attention," Jack pointed out more often than not when they were at the beach, glancing at a group of giggling girls somewhere between the ages of high school and college. Slightly too young for Harry, but not too young.

"I know," Harry always answered, never looking up from the sandcastle he and Teddy were building. Sometimes Jack wondered if whatever had happened to Teddy's mother had turned Harry off women entirely, but then Harry would buy them pizza and ice cream and he decided that it didn't really matter.

Despite the occasional boredom, the summer wasn't as bad as it could've been. They went to the beach a lot, ate out a few times, saw a lot of movies -- kids movies mostly, but Harry and Teddy had fine taste. They even went hiking for a day and visited the Garden of Gods, though Teddy was probably too young to appreciate the place and Jack really didn't care about rocks, no matter how big they were. The place made him wonder if Daniel had ever visited it though.

Around the middle of the summer, Jack started to wonder when he had become part of the family Harry and Teddy made. Suddenly it wasn't just about seeing each other now and then or going out to the beach, but Harry wanted to know things like if he was hungry, if he was bored, if he needed anything from the grocery store, if he needed ride anywhere…. Things family members asked, not neighbours. Except Harry wasn't, couldn't be, a parent to him. Jack was way too old to have a parent. Twice as old as Harry, in fact, which was probably why it was so awkward at first.

But… it wasn't _bad_ , per say. Harry was pretty cool in his own laid back, bit out of it and often a bit lost way -- which occasionally reminded Jack of Daniel. And damn if Teddy wasn't one of the most charming six year olds he had ever met. Of course there were barriers -- things Harry never said and never explained and things Jack never said and usually ignored -- but it was better than anything Jack had even hoped for. He hadn't actually even thought of anything like this, so it was… nice even if it was a bit weird.

He still couldn't stop thinking of SGC or SG1 and everything he was missing out on, but he held hope that some time soon a day would come when he wouldn't think of them even once.

 

* * *

 

It was around the end of the summer when Jack noticed that he had somewhere along the way gone from "why doesn't Harry care about women" to "why are those women always bothering Harry", though perhaps not in that exact wording. But it did happen. As Harry was approached by a few young women who asked a lot of -- in Jack's opinion, stupid -- questions about Teddy, the former Air Force Colonel found that with each time he got a bit more annoyed.

What was up with _that_? Some of those women were damn fine to look at, Harry could certainly do worse than sharing his time with them now and then. And they seemed kind, being all accepting about Teddy and all -- though maybe that was why they were so interested, seeing that Harry didn't seem to have a girlfriend or, indeed, a wedding ring. Jack should've been able to sit back and enjoy the show -- with possible feelings of jealousy and a little bit of rooting for his awkward friend. But no, he wasn't. Instead he found himself wanting to say something along the lines: "Excuse me, can't you see that we are busy building sandcastles here? Buzz off, this is important work here."

Thankfully towards the end of the summer it got a bit rainy and they started to cut the trips to the beaches. The thought still nagged him like Daniel after working himself into a rant. Why did he care about who made passes on Harry? The man could handle himself -- in fact he did handle himself well, refusing every display of interest and budding affection with polite smiles and slight indifference. But even though the man only had eyes for Teddy -- and Jack occasionally -- and no interest towards relationships, it still bothered Jack.

And that was the doorway to all sorts of weird thoughts. Like what Harry would think of him if he still had an older body, or how Harry would react to meeting the original him, or what Harry would say if he ever get the chance to tell him that he wasn't human, per say, but a clone with a genetic glitch. The weirdest thought that wouldn't leave him alone was possibly "what would we look like out on the beach if I was still older"?

 _'Except I never really was older. Hell, as it is I'm barely one year old really,'_ he thought with a little bit of annoyance. Mentally forty-six, physically fifteen and technically not even one. A bit pathetic really.

When autumn came and Jack's fall semester began, he was assaulted by the most worrisome thought of all. _'Now that I think about it… Harry isn't really bad looking.'_ And that opened a can of worms he had no way of sorting out with his sanity intact. Thankfully right then Harry's fourth book was published and Jack got distracted by the following media rumble, at least for a little while.

"I didn't realise that they were this popular, your books," he said with a little bit of shock, sitting on Harry's living room floor playing with Teddy and watching the TV while Harry sorted through his bills. The local news report was using the overcrowding in their Barnes and Noble as a relief. Apparently people of varying ages, from seven to seventy, had been lingering around the bookshop since five in the morning in hopes of getting their reserved copies of Harry's book quicker.

"I find that people can appreciate a good fantasy," Harry answered without looking up from his bank statement.

"You ever read the books to Teddy?" Jack asked, making the six year old glance up from the block building he was making. There were some elements in the books which were a bit dark, but they were essentially kids books.

"Of course I do. I wrote them for him," the man sighed, scratching his temple before laying the statement down. "I'll sort through this later," Harry mumbled and got up from the dinner table. With a sigh he sat down on the couch right next to Jack and Teddy. "Banking business isn't my favourite pass time."

Jack glanced at him before turning his attention to the TV, where the reporter was telling the story of the elusive and mysterious Evan Jameson. "Why did you tell me about this… you know, book writing business?" Jack then asked, motioning to the TV. "I mean, you haven't told anyone else around here about it, right? Why me? I could go to the press with it and get fame for it and all that jazz."

"If that was your intention, you already would've done it," Harry said with amusement, taking the remote control and starting to skim through the channels. "You seemed trustworthy enough, so I told you."

"Trustworthy, huh?" Jack mumbled, not sure what to make of that. But then Harry found the right channel -- the one where the Simpsons were on -- and he decided to think about it later. Instead he turned to lean onto the couch's edge while Harry called to Teddy not to watch the TV so close. As the kid quickly climbed over Jack's shoulder to sit beside Harry, Jack tried to be not so hyper-aware of the fact that his shoulder was leaning onto Harry's knee.

 

* * *

 

 _'Stupid, stupid, stupid,'_ was a litany Jack repeated to himself often during the early fall whenever he didn't manage to distract himself from the revelations he had been forced to face. _'Stupid rogue Asgard scientists and their stupid experiments, stupid me for ever thinking that going to high school was a good idea, stupid Air Force for settling me in that stupid building, stupid younger body, stupid, stupid, stupid….'_

Except in this case, it wouldn't have been any better if his body had been older. No, it would've possibly been a bit weirder. Like this he was some seven years younger than Harry, but like that he would've been some, ugh, twenty three years older. Neither was really good for him. _'But if I had never been cloned, I would've never gotten myself into this stupid situation in the first place. I would've never met Harry and I wouldn't have this stupid problem.'_

After hiding his flickering attraction for Daniel and Carter for so many years, one would've thought that he had gotten better at ignoring his feelings. But back then he’d been older, his body had been more, uh, controlled and there had been the whole Air Force business keeping him in check. Now he was young, his stupid body was full of hormones and the Air Force only checked up on him once every month or so. And it seemed like being young was eating away his elder mind, because he was seriously getting more teenagerish every passing day.

But no matter how he tried to ignore it or insult himself about it, it didn't matter. His hormones had happily latched onto Harry and way too often while spending time with Harry and Teddy Jack had found his thoughts straying to wonder what it would feel like if…. There were many 'ifs' to complete that sentence, all of which he tried not to think about too often, but which attacked him in the early hours just before he woke up and forced him to wash his nightwear every day.

It was _embarrassing_.

And what’s more, it wasn't just hormones, not unless they could actually turn him into goddamn girl at times. No, during boring geometry lessons he would drift off to happy, though slightly disturbing, daydreams of things he hadn't thought about since Sara had left him. Like sleeping beside someone and waking up with their warmth seeping into him and having a pleasant morning with banter over breakfast. He also found himself wondering what Teddy would become when he was a little bit older, wanting to be there and see it. Well, he was already seeing it, but he wanted to see it _up close_ , from the position Harry stood in.

Not soon after he had started to wonder about things like what a quiet night in Harry's house was like and what it would be like to creep up to the man and kiss his neck while he was writing, Jack decided that he had to distract himself. This, whatever this was, was getting dangerous and disturbing. He was too old and too young for this, and way too many things were against him in way too many ways. He shouldn't even be thinking about this.

So he decided that it was high time he started going to the local gym. He had just enough money to pay for the monthly premium, with which he could spend as much time in the gym as he wanted to. He ended up spending a few hours there every other day, just in the evening hoping to tire himself out so that he wouldn't have one of those damn dreams again. It helped some but not enough -- but at least he would fill out some and not be so damn wimpy.

Soon he ended up finding another hobby aside from body building. Since he was already fishing with Harry and Teddy, and doing some astronomy with an ancient telescope -- Jack really needed to ask Harry where he got it -- he decided to go with something else. Something he hadn't tried in a few years. Thankfully there was a group of -- mostly middle aged women -- in the town who shared his hobby, had a nice oven and didn't mind him joining.

Harry found his new hobby of pottery interesting and said something along the lines that it would be fitting for him, being a Potter and all, but Jack was happy he didn't decide to join. After all it wouldn't be much of a distraction if the thing he tried to distract himself from was right there with him. Jack got a few interested looks from the others in the group but mostly the others seemed delighted to find that a teen like him had such a hobby. Jack was nowhere near good, throwing wasn't as easy as it looked, but it was fun and properly distracting.

He gave the first vase he managed to make to Teddy. The kid broke it within a week but Jack didn't mind, he just made another.

Time went by and winter came. Juggling between school work, the gym, pottery and all the hobbies he shared with Harry and Teddy like fishing and astronomy, Jack managed to keep himself in check, somewhat. But like with his past attractions, he soon found that with Harry there he wasn't able to give his attention to anyone else. Well, in a way it was good -- seriously, he was old enough to be the _grandfather_ of the girls at his school -- but on the other hand it was nerve-wracking. He didn't want to spend the next few years pining after someone he couldn't have, just like with Daniel and Sam.

He was getting slightly worried about it when someone he had promised never to see again walked back into his life. It was, in a way, a rather amusing scenario. He was at the so called "club house" of the ceramist group, finishing up a tea cup with his hands dirtied by clay all the way up to his elbows, when Jack O'Neill walked in wearing not only Air Force dress blues, but a star where a bird had once been. After moment of staring at the aging man, the teen groaned. "Oh, god. They made you _General_?"


	2. Chapter 2

Jack fiddled with the papers given to him by his elder version -- whom he was calling just General in order to persevere his sanity. Some reports of the Ancient outpost in Antarctica -- since when had there been an Ancient outpost in the Antarctica? -- and the overall explanation of the Atlantis expedition -- the _what_ expedition? -- lead by Doctor Weir who apparently had been in charge of SGC between Hammond and the General -- when did that happen? An expedition to another galaxy, the Pegasus galaxy to be exact. An expedition which he could join if he wanted to.

"They need people with this Ancient gene on the mission, to work the machinery in case they don't find any Ancients," the General had explained. "They have half a dozen people or so already, but only one with a really strong gene. And I sorta have a strong gene too so it, uh, makes sense that you'd have it too."

"But… I'm still fifteen, or almost sixteen," Jack had answered with a frown. "Physically anyway. They'd really take a sixteen year old along for the ride?"

"I'm the General; I get to make some decisions, too. Well, of course you wouldn't be part of the military and they wouldn't let you go off world or anything but you have the gene and the expertise…" the General had sighed. "It's just that… well, I figured that if I had the chance to choose between this," he motioned wildly at Jack's messy apartment, "and going there? I'd so go."

Jack couldn't really argue against that sentiment. "So… I'd be a civilian contractor?"

"Basically, yeah."

Strange how that worked out, he ended up having the chance of being something he had been certain he didn't have the brains for. Jack had to admit that the mission had been offered to him back when he had first entered to this civilian life, there wouldn't have been anything to decide. Even now he wanted to go, he really did, every inch of him was screaming to go, to get back into the program, even to serve as an adviser and possible light switch. But something made him hesitate just enough to stop him from reading the papers thoroughly.

A one way trip. That was what the General had said. It was possible that they couldn't even establish a connection to the Pegasus galaxy, and if they could there was no way of saying if they'd had enough energy there to gate back to Earth. Odds were that they would be out of contact for a very long time, possibly… forever.

And the idea never again seeing Harry or Teddy was one he didn't like overly much. _'But then again, what were my chances with Harry anyway?'_ he snorted quietly to himself before shaking his head and turning to read the papers. There was a long list of personnel, equipment and stuff like that listed in the papers. Apparently Doctor Weir and the man who was going to be the military commander, Colonel Sumner, had thought that it was necessary for him to know. _'Well, I am the General's mini-me, so it's apt I guess….'_

He wanted to stay and keep close to Harry and Teddy, wanted to see Harry's fifth book and how Teddy would handle school. But at the same time he wanted to go more than he wanted to stay. Other galaxies, Stargates, aliens, technologies… sci-fi stuff, that was what he lived for, hell, it was why he existed, literally! And he knew that if he didn't go, he would regret it for the rest of his life. _'And if I go, I might end up spending the rest of my life regretting not staying, how ever short that rest of my life might be,'_ he sighed.

He wanted to go and he would go. He had known of Stargate way longer than of Harry, so the decision was easy. But he had time before he would leave. A few weeks wasn't much but it was enough. Time to do… something about the situation with Harry and Teddy. Or at least enjoy it for what it's worth, seeing that it would be his last chance. Well, he still couldn't do what he wanted, but he could still… be there for a little while.

 

* * *

 

"I'm, uh… I'm leaving," Jack said to Harry a day after he had returned the papers to the General and with his signatures and promises to be there on time with his bags packed. "Moving away. My uncle, he, uhh…. I might not be coming back."

The man glanced at him from Teddy's drawing which he had been examining. After lowering the paper to the table, he leaned his chin on his knuckles. "And it's what you want to do?" was what Harry said and it wasn't the question Jack had been expecting.

"Yeah. I… yeah. It is."

"Then I'm happy for you," the man offered him a brief smile before turning his attention to the scribbled drawing again. "Teddy will miss you."

Jack frowned a little before sighing inwardly. Of course Harry wouldn't. To the man he was just some teenager living in the same apartment building and nothing more. "I'll miss him too." Scratching his scalp in hopes of getting rid of the twinge of bitterness, Jack coughed. "I'd write and call but… but I'm not sure if I'll get the chance to," he said awkwardly.

"That's a pity," Harry murmured, glancing at the boy who was leafing through one of his astronomy picture books on the floor -- Harry had gotten him a few more after realising how much the kid liked them.

There was silence in the living room for a while. Jack tried not to frown at the man's indifference, tried not to feel insulted by it, tried not to feel… betrayed. But he did. _'Stupid teenager self-image hormones,'_ he thought, trying to quell down the simple _hurt_ he felt, tried not to make an ass out of himself. But he couldn't contain it for long. "Do _you_ care at all? That I'm leaving?"

The black haired man glanced at him with surprise before chuckling. To the teen's embarrassment the man reached out and ruffled Jack's hair. "Of course I do. But if it's something you want to do…" he said after messing Jack's already tousled hair completely. "Then I'd rather be supportive than sad."

"You'll be sad?" Jack asked before being able to stop himself. _'Stupid…!'_

Harry smiled, withdrawing his hand. "I assure you, Teddy isn't the only one who enjoys your company, Jonathan," he said, leaning his chin on his palm.

Jack shifted in his seat and smiled hesitantly before turning his attention to the table with a frown. "I'll miss you too," he then said awkwardly, wishing that he had one of those clipboards from SGC meetings to fiddle. He took a deep breath, deciding to just say it. "You know, I --"

"You don't need to say it," Harry answered before he could finish, making him snap his eyes open. The man was looking at him with surprising tenderness. "Maybe one day, when you're a bit older…. But not now. Not yet."

Jack blinked, for a moment wondering if the man really knew what he had been about to say. Then he frowned defiantly and met the man's emerald green eyes with his own brow ones. "Why not now?"

"Because no matter how old your soul is, you are still too young physically for me to have this conversation with you. It's better for us not to prematurely condemn something that might work in time," the man answered while standing up and making his way towards the kitchen. "I think I'll make some tea. Do you want some?"

"I… prefer coffee," Jack mumbled, following the man with shocked eyes. _'He can't know… right? Of course not, it's not possible. How could he know?'_ Throwing a look towards Teddy who was quietly reciting star names to himself, he frowned towards the kitchen. "What do you mean by old soul?" he asked demandingly. "And does this mean you'll consider it in three years?"

"Your eyes have seen more than they should have. They are older than your face," the man answered from the kitchen. "And yes, when you are old enough I'll be willing to have this conversation with you again. But for now it’s closed."

Jack was quiet for a moment, digesting the words. _'So, he doesn't know exactly but… yeah. Okay,'_ he sighed, and ran his hand through his dark hair. "Fine," he murmured. _'Three years. If I'm still alive three years from now, if I still… I’ll bring this up again.'_

"So, when will you be moving?" Harry asked once he had returned from the kitchen with a tea cup in hand. "Do you need a hand?"

"Well, actually… there’s a lot of stuff I can't bring with me," Jack said, pushing past the previous conversation but tucking it into his memory. There was no way he would allow himself to forget it. "I was just going to throw it all away, but… if you want any of it…."

The man eyed him studiously before nodding. "Alright, if you really intend to throw it away," he said.

Aside from the things Jack could bring with him -- the essentials like clothing, personal hygiene items and a few personal items -- everything went to Harry. The man seemed especially glad to get Jack's abysmal pottery, but Jack supposed that it might've been his own hopefulness which made it seem like that. Teddy, on the other hand, was happy to get Jack's play station and all the games -- whilst Jack mourned the fact that he couldn't take it with him.

Jack spent the last days on Earth with Harry and Teddy, Harry even let him sleep on the couch a few nights. He didn't know that they were possibly Jack's last day of semi-normalcy but he was understanding, for which the teen was thankful. As their goodbye, Harry and Teddy gave Jack a small stack of photographs they had taken the previous summer, along with a teary hug from Teddy and a soft kiss to the forehead from Harry.

 

* * *

 

It seemed like it had been forever since he had seen the SGC last time and it seemed like everything had drastically changed. Or maybe it was the few hundred people involved with the Atlantis expedition, who were rushing back and forth and trying to get equipment ready for transport. SGC certainly had never been so full of… stuff before. But even so, it was nice being home.

 _'Home. This isn't home,'_ Jack sighed, shrugging slightly underneath the uniform he had been made to wear. The Atlantis uniform was kinda cool, not exactly a military uniform but a uniform none the less. They had to make his specially since he wasn't military or scientist of any department and he was way smaller than anyone else in the group. It made him feel special.

Meeting those in charge of the expedition to the other galaxy was… interesting to say at least. Doctor Elizabeth Weir, who was in charge in general, was nice, diplomatic and surprisingly okay with the idea that "Jonathan" was the clone of General O'Neill. Having been in charge of the SGC, even though only for a little while, might have helped her there. The highest ranking military officer, Colonel Sumner, on other hand… not so much. When they shook hands, the Marine Colonel seemed to be itching to tell Jack off somehow but couldn't because Jack's elder version was watching.

"I can just tell that working under that man is going to be so much fun," Jack muttered to his elder version after Sumner had walked off to head down to the gate room.

"You're not in the military, he's not your CO," the General said, patting his shoulder awkwardly. "You have nothing to worry about."

"Yeah, well… I doubt he sees it that way," Jack muttered, glancing around the busy control room. Thankfully people seemed so busy with everything that they hadn't had the chance to notice him or be weirded out by him. Then he noticed Daniel who had walked into the room, talking to some Asian scientist. Quickly Jack turned to look away. _'Better burn that bridge right now,'_ he mused darkly. _'Daniel isn't my team mate or my friend -- or my secret object of affection. He's my nothing anymore.'_

"This is so freaking surreal," Jack murmured, looking around again. Then he shook his head, looking down into the gate room through the control room's window. "I think I'll head down there and try to stay out of people's way," he said, wishing to get out of the presence of the General and Daniel -- and the feeling of not-belonging.

"Right. Well, good luck to you," the General said awkwardly. Jack just nodded and walked out of the control room. Between the two of them that was a good enough farewell.

As he waited, he watched how Sumner argued with the scientists, threatening to leave their equipment behind if they didn't get them set for transport on time. Wondering if Hammond -- or his old self -- had ever acted like that as a CO, Jack tried to keep unseen and stay out of the way. The Gate room was clearly the busiest of all with people going in and out and hauling enormous crates of no doubt priceless equipment with them.

 _'Easy to see that none of these people expect any help to come afterwards,'_ he mused as he listened to a medical doctor tell Sumner off. The amount they had packed to take with them told clear tale -- they had taken as much as they could and everything they absolutely needed. _'With this amount of stuff they should survive months. No. We should survive for months. I'm in this just as much as they are. My contribution to this just will be… lesser.'_

The gate room filled with people, military and civilian. Then Weir walked into the room, calling, "May I have everyone's attention, please?" while pulling her uniform jacked on. She gave a nice speech about how they only have one shot at this and that if they would make a connection to a place which was liveable, it was an all or nothing situation. She spent a moment on praising the people involved before telling them that they might all die. She gave everyone one chance to withdraw, which seemed like a nice thing to do, and when no one said anything she commenced the dialling sequence.

 _'I have a feeling she gives a lot of speeches,'_ Jack mused, looking around as the gate started to dial. Turning his attention to the gate, he took a deep breath and released it. He had missed the gate, it was a strange thought that this would possibly be the last time he saw it. _'But hopefully this won't be the last time I see_ a _gate. Just_ this _gate.'_

The eight chevrons locked and the gate activated with a familiar unstable vortex. As the people clapped around him Jack smiled at the blue shimmer, feeling strangely nostalgic while the MALP was sent through. He had missed this. He had missed this a lot, he admitted with a tingle of excitement running through him while they waited for the MALP telemetry to tell if it was safe to pass through the gate. _'And to another galaxy.'_ How cool was _that_?

Apparently it was safe. After Sumner and Weir had spent a moment on deciding who goes first, Sumner and few Marines headed first, then Weir. As he saw that the scientists and the rest of the Marines were quickly grabbing something to carry or push or drag through the gate, Jack decided that he might as well head through next. After sending a look over his shoulder to the control room, he offered the General and Daniel a crooked grin before turning and leaving them both behind.

He wasn't the only one who had decided so, though. Two army officers, both holding a P-90, were heading up the ramp just ahead of him. Seeing that one of them paused, Jack concluded that it was the man's first gate trip. "What's it feel like?" the man asked the Marine, who answered, "Hurt's like hell, sir," before jumping into the gate with a cheerful whoop.

Grinning, Jack stepped beside the still hesitating officer. "It's a piece of cake, Major," he said amusedly.

"They're bringing _kids_ along?" the man asked with a shock, sizing him up with slightly wide eyes.

"I'm the expedition mascot," Jack answered solemnly. Giving a thought to Harry and Teddy, he stepped into the water-like event horizon, wishing that he would see them again some day.

 

* * *

 

Then Jack was too busy to give Harry or Teddy any thought at all for a while. They found Atlantis -- which was enormous, Manhattan-sort-of-enormous -- intact and damn amazing. The fact that it was several hundred feet of ocean was worrisome up until the chief of the science department, McKay, found that the city had a force field holding the water back. Jack found it pretty cool in a claustrophobic way.

Then Beckett, the chief medical officer, found a hologram of an Ancient woman who told them a tale of how the Ancients got their asses kicked by some "terrible enemy" until they were forced to retreat back to Earth, which is why the city was abandoned. And then they found out that, due to lack of power, the shield had collapsed to minimum and it was only a matter of time before it failed and they all suffered a horrible death by drowning.

In Jack's opinion, it was a decent start. _'Just like the good old times.'_

Sumner along with team of Marines -- and the Air Force Major with the super gene -- headed out through the gate to search for a planet where they could survive, or hopefully find another power source. Meanwhile Jack awkwardly stuck close to the scientists in case they needed the help of his gene, up until McKay sent him to check out the spaceship hanger and see if he could work out the controls of the ships. Jack was sure the man just wanted to get rid of him, but hey, _spaceships_!

By the time the city started to shake, Jack had worked out the controls, learned how to turn the ship invisible and decided that the thing was definitely one of the greatest things anyone had ever created. A ship that could read your _mind_ , absolutely awesome. Then the city shook, groaned and rose to the surface of the ocean and Jack concluded that he would've hated himself if he hadn't come on the expedition.

When Jack got to the control room -- or gate room, or whatever they were going to call that room -- they had somehow adopted a race of aliens called the "Athosians," who thankfully seemed to be all human, and Sumner and a few others had been kidnapped by someone called the "Wraith."

The Air Force Major with the super gene, John Sheppard, took the kidnapping rather badly. Jack watched thoughtfully as he ordered McKay around and before he had a private argument with Weir. The man had a "no leaving people behind" thing which Jack could relate to, but he was happy that Weir was ultimately in charge. McKay eventually got a lock onto the address used by the kidnappers, but the gate was in space. Thankfully they got spaceships that could fit nicely into the gate.

They wouldn't let Jack fly on the mission, which was a bummer. But he got to give a crash course to Sheppard, which was kinda amusing seeing that he only had a few hours' worth of expertise when it came to the ships. Sheppard mounted a rescue, during which Sumner was killed and a race of life sucking aliens, the same ones to whom the Ancients had lost, were woken from hibernation.

At the end of the day they had a party -- during which Weir wouldn't give Jack any of the champagne -- and Sheppard became the highest ranking military officer. While the Earthlings made friends with the Athosians, and learned an interesting gesture of affection used by the Athosians, Jack finally had enough time for the facts to sink in.

He was in another galaxy and was probably never going to see Harry and Teddy again.

 

* * *

 

"So, this is the place you live in now, Jonathan? Looks… different."

Jack snapped his eyes open and for a moment stared at the man standing in the middle of his rather barren -- and probably temporary -- room in Atlantis. Giving Harry a surprised blink, he quickly sat up. Then, as the man continued to look around in the room with fascination, he sighed. "This is a dream isn't it?" he asked.

The black haired man chuckled, pushing his thumbs into the pockets of his jeans and rocking on the balls of his feet. "Perhaps," he answered, giving Jack one of those amused knowing looks he was very good at. "What is this place?"

After weighing his options and deciding that if his consciousness wanted to conjure up Harry's image in order to deal with this change in his life, he might as well go along with it. "This is Atlantis," he said, dropping his feet to the metal floor. The lack of chill was definite proof of the dream-scenario thing. "And these are my quarters. For now anyway. I might get new ones once we've secured enough of the place."

"Atlantis? The lost city Atlantis, the one that sunk to the bottom of the sea?" Harry asked, tilting his head to the side.

"Yeah, that one," Jack nodded and sat up. "We just found it and it seems like we're going to stay here for a while…. Would you like to see it?"

"I'd love to."

Jack led Harry out of his quarters and towards the control tower. He spoke about the Ancients and Stargate command -- and about the Atlantis Expedition. "We need this sort of stuff, you know," he said while running his hand over one of the crystal-key control consoles. "Advanced technologies and knowledge -- weapons -- and stuff. Because we're not alone in the galaxy and there are a whole lot of… things out there that want us gone. Like gothic space vampires."

"I see," Harry nodded solemnly, eyeing the Stargate with a thoughtful look. It was completely illogical but the Stargate was active, the event horizon softly shimmering its watery blue and shedding light on the otherwise dark control room. "We're not on Earth then, hm?"

"No. We're on another planet, in another galaxy even. The Pegasus galaxy," Jack shrugged, leaning onto one of the consoles. "The planet might have a name but I don't know it."

Harry nodded thoughtfully, turning his attention from the gate to the nearest window and then walking down to it. Jack followed him and together they looked down to the nightly Atlantis. "It's beautiful. Truly other worldly," the black haired man smiled softly. "I can see why you chose to leave."

"I will come back, Harry. If I can, I will," Jack assured quickly. "But right now…."

"Right now it isn't possible. I understand," Harry smiled to him softly before leaning in and giving Jack the chance to relive the kiss to his forehead Harry had given before he had left. "Take care of yourself, Jonathan. I'll be waiting for you on Earth."

 

* * *

 

In the days following their arrival to Atlantis, Jack was happy his duties were more… casual than others. McKay and the other scientists now and then required his -- and Sheppard's -- help in activating some systems which had been asleep for ten thousand years, but other than that Jack had little to do.

He helped Sheppard organize the living area after the soldiers had secured those sections but that was about it at first. Mostly due to boredom he promised one of the scientists, Radek Zelenka, to help in any way he could while the Czech scientist studied the spaceships -- which Sheppard had named Puddle Jumpers for god knows what reason.

"Okay, the city obviously is head over heels with Sheppard, but these babies? So mine," Jack spoke to the slightly amused Zelenka, while running his hand over the crystal controls of the Jumper fondly. To be fair, Sheppard was a pretty good Jumper pilot in his own right. But before they had a life-threatening space race through an explosive asteroid field -- or something similar -- to determine who was better, Jack was the better one. The fact that Sheppard was planning to make Jack train the others with the Ancient gene in flying was just a proof that the man agreed with him.

But even that "duty" didn't fill Jack's hours. So he decided to spend the extra time getting to know the Athosians and helping them feel at home.

"I did not realise that your people brought children," the leader of the Athosians, Teyla, said to him when they first met. She seemed both surprised and confused by his presence, though she didn't seem as weirded out by it than some of the scientists and Marines from Earth.

"I'm a… special sort of kid," Jack grinned at her. Thankfully the Athosians seemed like free minded people and accepted him quickly enough -- him and the fact that he didn't act quite like a child was supposed to. The children were at first nervous of him but when he pulled out Harry's first book and started the habit of a daily story hour, they warmed up to him quickly enough.

Jack liked the Athosians, even though most of the base found them primitive. They were simple people with simple motives -- their beliefs, morals and such were complicated and made Jack wish Daniel was there to interpret, but in the end he saw eye to eye with them in most cases. They also had a cool way of dressing too -- a jacket one of the elder Athosian kids gave to him because it was too small for him was one of the most durable pieces of clothing Jack had ever worn. Comfortable too.

Beckett, the chief of the medicine department, came up with a gene therapy that gave people the Ancient Technology Activation gene. McKay was one it was tried on and it worked. The first thing he did was to turn on a personal shield -- which Sheppard then tested by firing at McKay and then throwing him off the balcony. It seemed like fun for a moment but then McKay couldn't take the thing off -- and with it on, he couldn't eat or drink. Weir had a theory that it would turn it self off once McKay got hungry enough, so Jack wasn't overly worried.

Then a kid got lost in the city and some kind of shadow thing appeared. There were system malfunctions and talk of ghosts. Jack, unable to join the teams looking for the kid or the ghosts of the shadows, spent his time with the Athosians to keep them calm. It was pretty creepy that night, but the kid was found and they found out that the kid had accidentally released a dark… cloud-creature-thing which fed on energy and burned people when they touched it.

Thankfully they got an idea about using a Naquadah generator to lure the thing through the gate to some empty planet. It was supposed to go with a MALP, but the cloud-thingy drained the MALP's battery. McKay, in a feat of heroics Jack had thought the man was completely incapable of, walked into the cloud-thingy and threw the generator through the gate. The thingy left, Atlantis was saved, and John Sheppard fell for the arrogant science department head. Jack was pretty sure he was the only one who noticed though. Even Sheppard himself seemed to be completely unaware of the look he had given to McKay after the man had regained consciousness after passing out inside the energy-creature-thingy.

 _'Age brings wisdom along with bad knees,'_ he mused sombrely inside his mind but he was rather sure he only noticed Sheppard's predicament because that was exactly what had happened to him. Except… Daniel had actually died after taking the risk to save people. Ascended. Whatever. It had been long ago and he didn't want to think about it. The whole dying thing had taken the joy out of the whole thing anyway.

More stuff happened as time went on. While examining the planet where the Wraith ship had been, a tick from hell attached to Sheppard's neck and on top of that the team got their Jumper stuck in the middle of the gate. And with the gate capable of being active only thirty eight minutes, the situation was, ah… grave. Jack worked along with Zelenka to figure out the Jumper controls from inside the rear compartment so that they could get the ship through the gate while the medical doctors were trying to find a way to get the bug off of Sheppard's neck. It was one of the most hectic half hour periods Jack had ever had.

 In the end they managed to save Sheppard, the ship and everyone in it, but not without McKay having a slight nervous breakdown and Sheppard's heart stopping. Thankfully the good Doctor Beckett managed to restart the man's heart and with some tending to he got back to a hundred percent. Business as usual. _'Except for the fact that they almost trashed one of_ my _Jumpers!'_

Some time later he and Weir started to get suspicious. Sheppard's off world team, which included Lieutenant Ford, Doctor McKay, Teyla and Sheppard himself, encountered Wraith on five missions -- and they had only gone out for nine. Jack, who had made friends with the Athosians and still continued to read Harry's books to the kids, didn't like the idea too much, but… it was possible that there was a spy in the city. And there was no way any of their people could've made the necessary contacts for that.

It was a horrible time. The Athosians were barred from certain areas of the city and Weir wanted to interview the Athosians. Only Sergeant Bates, who was in charge of the security of the base, made it seem like it was an interrogation. Despite Jack's attempts to assure the Athosians that they weren't accusing or blaming them, they got the picture. And Jack couldn't deny the suspicions.

When during studying the Jumpers McKay and Zelenka found a way of opening a roof-hatch… thing. Sheppard was, of course, quick to head out to explore the world where Atlantis dwelled. During the exploration they found land in their planet. Bates immediately suggested dumping the Athosians there. Jack would've found it a bit cruel if the Athosians hadn't actually liked the idea. In fact, they seemed happier with the idea of inhabiting land rather than staying on Atlantis.

So the Athosians went. Jack helped them move and made sure that they had everything they needed -- and made a promise to visit as often as he could so that he could finish reading the books to the kids. The promise turned into certainty when one of the Athosian men promised to teach him the Athosian art of fishing.

The "spy" in the end turned out to be a necklace Teyla wore. It had a transmitter in it, one which Sheppard had activated when they had met back in the planet Athos. Of course Teyla didn't know what it was, never had. To her it had looked like a jewel. They ended up using it to ambush the Wraith and catch one alive for interrogation. It didn't do much good, the thing didn't speak, but at least Atlantis had a very cool brig.

 

* * *

 

"The Athosians might never again trust us. Weir handled herself as well as anyone could've and Teyla understands but, well…" Jack shrugged with a sigh, looking over the ocean. During the night time it looked even bigger and emptier than usually, but the reflections of the clouds, the stars and the moon seemed somehow comforting.

"I'm sure it will be fine," Harry assured, leaning onto the metal railing with one hand and rubbing Jack's back comfortingly with the other. "Just give it time. I'm sure they understand that you are in this together and separating completely won't help either of you in the long run."

"Yeah, I think they do. But many of them seem to be bitter that we aren't the Ancients, their hallowed 'Ancestors'," Jack shook his head, turning his eyes to the man. "How are you?" he asked, leaning a little against the man's side. "How is Teddy?"

"I'm fine. I'm one third done with the next book," Harry smiled and Jack wondered if what he was saying came anywhere near the truth. "Teddy is doing fine as well. He did, however, turn his hair red in the school the other day. Apparently one of the boys picked on his friend," the man chuckled.

It was times like this Jack was very aware that it was just a dream. "Teddy turned his hair… red?"

"Yeah, he used to do that often when he was a bit younger. His hair and eye colour seemed to change with his moods and he had many moods," the man at his side laughed at the memory. "It took me years to teach him how to keep his hair black; it kept reverting to teal all the time. This time, thankfully, only few people saw it this time before he got himself under control. I only had to modify the memories of about four people."

 _'I've read Harry's books way too many times,'_ Jack mused, figuring that that was where his imagination was getting this conversation from. "Well, that's… nice I suppose," he said, not sure what else to say.

"I'm finally getting to the point in the books where I meet his mother," Harry murmured with a sad smile. "He keeps haranguing me to finish the book quicker. And he wants to read it himself, doesn't want me to read it for him." The man sighed. "He's growing up, my little Teddy."

"Well, that's what happens with kids. They tend to grow," Jack pointed out. "My kid… he seemed to grow quick too." He turned his eyes to the ocean. "Sometimes Teddy reminded me of him."

"Of your kid?"

"Charlie, yeah. I still miss him so much, even though it's been…" he swallowed shook his head. He had never said even this much out loud -- crystal-entity-events not withstanding -- and he was rather sure that it was as much as he could say. Hundred of years could go by and the hurt of losing Charlie to his own mistake would still sting. "Why are we talking about this? This is my dream; I want it to be a good one."

"Alright. Pleasant dreams, Jonathan." Harry's arm on his shoulder pulled him closer before Jack drifted to happier dreams with the feel of a kiss on his forehead.

 

* * *

 

"You ever miss it?" Sheppard asked one time when they were getting a bite to eat at the mess hall -- or what had been turned into a mess hall anyway. "The excitement, going out there, exploring worlds and stuff… that was what General O'Neill did back when he was Colonel -- and you are, uh, him… right?"

"Hm," Jack bit into his sandwich and thought about it. "Not as much as I could, I guess. I was a civilian for a year, you know," he shrugged. "I got adjusted to life a lot more boring than this. I mean, come on. We live in Atlantis, for crying out loud. Around here using the elevators is exiting. Transporters. Whatever."

The man snorted in agreement. "You miss anything of the civilian life then?" Sheppard raised his eyebrows while reaching for his cup towards his lips.

"Hm. The pottery," Jack answered after a moment of thought, thinking back to a little boy and a tall thin man. "And fishing. Astronomy too."

"Pottery?"

"It was my hobby," the teen shrugged indignantly.

The man eyed him for a moment before shrugging. "I miss Ferris wheels, golfing and surfing. Mainly the Ferris wheels," he took a sip from his drink. "You know, I think I'm already adjusted to you. Seriously. A mini-clone is easier to handle than life-sucking space vampires."

Jack snorted.

 

* * *

 

Time went by, as it usually does. They found a ZPM but couldn't use it because for one, it was nearly depleted and for two, it was powering up an EMP field protecting _kids_ who had been unknowingly subjected to population control through a tradition of human sacrifice which was performed at the age of twenty five. As a result their population remained small enough to not grow over the limits of the field, but, well. They only lived up to twenty five! That was wrong on too many levels.

Thankfully Weir decided not to steal the ZPM, McKay decided to widen the field without raising the power consumption too much and Sheppard decided to get them out of the human sacrifice habit. It was definitely one of their better achievements in the Pegasus galaxy.

And then they met the Hoffans. They, like every other human population in the Pegasus galaxy, had for years and years -- hundreds if not thousands of years -- suffered through the Wraith cullings. The Wraith had always come, devastated their culture and picked their population until almost nothing had left.

But the Hoffans hadn't given up, oh no. The Hoffans had been for over a hundred years working on a drug that would turn them immune to Wraith feeding. Since he had woken up the Wraith fifty years too soon, and taken away their chance to perfect the drug in time, Sheppard promised the Hoffans their help. Doctor Beckett had gone and together he and some female Hoffan doctor had worked on the drug and… made a breakthrough.

The drug was tested. It was inoculated to a terminally ill Hoffan man who, of course, agreed to it… but the real test subject was the Wraith in their brig, whom Sheppard insisted on calling Steve of all things. They made the Wraith feed on the vaccinated Hoffan man and… lo and behold, it worked. The Wraith wasn't able to feed. On top of that, the vaccination ended up being poisonous to the Wraith, who died not much later from it.

The Hoffans had seen it as a miraculous breakthrough and they had started mass production. Then the first test subject, the terminally ill man, died. And then… fifty percent of everyone who had been vaccinated had started dying as well. So of course people from Atlantis, Beckett most of all, had told them to stop, argued, pleaded even… but the Hoffans hadn't listened.

Atlantis had cut off their short lived friendship with the Hoffans, especially after hearing that they indeed to introduce the drug to other worlds as well… but Jack couldn't help but wonder. They, the humans from Earth and the Athosians, could see the danger in the drug. Not just the mortality rate but the fact that should Wraith find out about it, they wouldn't let the Hoffans just go, no, they would kill every one of them. Them and all their allies. But the Hoffans had been confident that it wouldn't come to that.

If the Hoffans wouldn't figure out another way of protecting themselves, the Wraith would no doubt kill them all. Jack realised that but he still had to admire them in a certain way. The entire population of people accepted a fifty-fifty chances of survival just for one chance… which would probably do them no good in the end. So determined that they terminated their own culture over it. It was horrible and incredible at the same time.

He couldn't help but wonder how much torture that culture had suffered through for them to end up like that.

 

* * *

 

"They'll be killed. I kinda feel sorry for that," Jack mused. He and Harry were sitting on the stairs of the control room, basking in the shimmering blue light of the Stargate. "Which is kinda weird, since I didn't even meet them. But… they weren't bad people. I think. They just… made a bad call when trying to do something good."

"There is a saying about good intentions, Jonathan," Harry sighed, leaning back against the step while eyeing the Stargate. "Good intentions and goals for the greater good can blind even the wisest of men. And at some point they stop seeing the horror of their actions because the good they think they achieve takes their entire attention."

Jack glanced at him. "Personal experience?" he asked curiously, wondering what sort of wild story the man would conjure for him. The dream-Harry had already told him of wild tales of how he had used to fly for sport when he had been in school, how he had once gone through the most amazing academy in record time in order to become a law-officer with superhuman powers and how Teddy could change his appearance at will.

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive," Harry spoke softly. "It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."

At Jack's blank look, the man chucked. "C. S. Lewis," Harry shrugged, turning his attention to the ceiling of the gate room, eyeing the hatch which could be opened to let the Puddle Jumpers into the room. "I once knew a man like that. Very old, very powerful and with very good intentions but… with goals that over shone the consequences of his actions. I died for his goals."

"You don't seem very dead to me," Jack pointed flatly. When Harry merely chuckled and gave him one of those knowing looks, he sighed. "Okay, fine. Dying and being dead are two different things; Daniel has proved that over and over again. Hell, I've died a few times too."

"You have?" Harry asked with worry.

"Part of the job. Aliens kill ya and alien technology revives ya," Jack murmured, but his tone was slightly dark as he remembered the time in Ba'al's tender care. "This ain't the safest job for one's health -- or sanity." Seeing the worry in the man's eyes, he smiled. "Don't worry. I'm not out on the front lines anymore. Major Sheppard hold's that happy place around here. I'm just… an extra pair of hands around Atlantis. Hands and genes."

"You make it sound like you're in another galaxy for breeding purposes," Harry chuckled. "But, to return to the subject of the Hoffans…. They've lived for single goal for so long, that they probably lost sight of everything else. That tends to happen."

"Victory at all cost," Jack murmured. "Churchill. And I'm just quoting Beckett's quote here. Doesn't seem to justify it, though."

"Maybe they see it as an acceptable loss," Harry shrugged. "Maybe they see that the death of one half will ensure the survival of the other half. It might not be the case in reality, but…" he frowned. "If I was forced to choose between the lives of myself and that of Teddy, I would immediately accept my own death. For the Hoffans… it might've been the same."

"Yeah… I suppose."

"Different people who come from different origins have different ways of reacting to different situations," the man said with a soft humourless chuckle. "What is horrible in the eyes of some is acceptable in the eyes of others." For a moment he was quiet, just staring at the event horizon. "It's been almost five years since I got stuck here and the things which are frowned upon here and accepted there -- or accepted here and frowned upon there… they still startle me sometimes. The differences are staggering."

"Huh?" Jack glanced at him.

"Between your world and the one where Teddy and I come from," the man answered with a sigh and then smiled at the confused look Jack gave him. "Never mind." Harry chuckled softly, shifting closer and pressing a kiss to Jack's brow.

 

* * *

 

Though they weren't exactly in dire need, it was starting to seem like their food supplies would soon run out. Sure, the Athosians were planting crops on the mainland, but they were months away from harvest. While McKay kept hogging all the coffee before it ran out, Weir and Teyla began to plan on making trading partners in order to get more food. Their first attempt at trading was with the Genii and… it didn't turn out well at all.

The Genii seemed like they were simple farmers. They couldn't give away as much as Atlantis needed because apparently they didn't have the time to till the land. Sheppard then decided to demonstrate the uses of deadly equipment as farming equipment, offering to trade C4 for the food.

Jack had to wonder where the man got the idea that food for explosives was a good trade.

And oh, did the Genii ever like C4! Only around then McKay and Ford found bunkers underneath the village. Apparently the peaceful Genii were actually hiding their advancements by appearing like they were nothing but farmers. Underneath the surface they were a bit different. And then the negotiations went from food and C4 to atomic bombs, death threats and missions to hive ships. And oh, they were betrayed in the end too, but thankfully Sheppard had some back up and they managed to get away somewhat peacefully.

Definitely not one of the better missions, but they did get a nifty Wraith data gimmick which enlightened them with some nasty truths. They found out that there were lots and lots of Wraith ships out there -- and the Wraith had really had big ships. It was one hostile galaxy they lived in.

"Seriously, this place is so messed up," Jack grumbled to Zelenka while they were working to repair one of the damaged Jumpers. There were a few of those, not just ones they themselves had managed to damage, but those which had been damaged ten thousand years ago back in the war between the Ancients and the Wraith. "Life sucking marilyn-mansons are bad enough, but the people of this place. The sacrifice kids, then the Hoffans and now the Genii? Seriously…."

"Living under constant impending doom might help people make some drastic decisions," the Czech scientist answered without looking away from the crystal slots he was working on. "Like getting your leg pinned under a rock slide or fallen tree… in order to survive, wouldn't you cut it off?"

Jack sighed, leaning back in the pilot's seat. "I don't know. Natural life span, half of the entire world's population and public image… how do those account for means of survival?" he mused. "Well, the Genii I get. When they're seen to be just a punch of humble farmers, they don't appear too scary. That's just a safety measure. But the sacrifice things, just… ugh."

"I can't argue against that," Zelenka answered, glancing at him. "Try extracting the engine pods now."

Jack did as asked, but apparently the left pod was still stuck. Zelenka sighed and went back to work.

As time went by, more things happened. Sheppard's team travelled off world a few times per week and got into trouble now and then, made friends and enemies and had wacky adventures. Just like a proper flag-ship team should. Jack learned some Jumper-first-aid from Zelenka and that Beckett liked fishing as much as he did -- which made it easier to get the man to learn to fly a Jumper, every time they flew to the mainland they got to fish after all. He also started learn the Athosian stick-fighting from his Athosian friends and Teyla, when ever she had the time.

And then… then they had been in Atlantis almost half a year. Half a year completely cut off from Earth. Jack wasn't sure if anyone noticed, but he did. Teddy's birthday had come and gone and he hadn't had the time to celebrate. Jack didn't even know when Harry had a birthday. So, whilst celebrating -- or mourning depending on the perspective -- their sixth month anniversary at Atlantis, Jack also celebrated Teddy's and Harry's birthday.

"Many happy returns," he murmured, raising his last cup of coffee to the framed picture sitting on his bed side table. Harry and Teddy smiled at him from the picture and he hoped that one day he could return to Earth.

 

* * *

 

"There was a war in the world where I come from," Harry told him in one dream. In this one they were walking on one of the piers of Atlantis, the city glowing against the night sky beautifully. "Two wars actually, both basically civil wars, but at the same time nothing like. The first war ended when I was just a baby and the second one began when I was fifteen. I was one of the front-line fighters in the second war," he stretched his hands. "Though of course it was nothing like the wars you've gone through."

"What was it like then?" Jack asked, wondering what sort of tale Harry would give him this time.

"Shadowy. Our wars aren't fought with guns and bombs and armies," the man shook his head. "Instead they are fought mostly with ideals, fear and power. Sometimes with politics and rumours. In that war, the fighters worked from the shadows and actual conflicts were rare. Each side intersected the other, mingled and meshed until it was impossible to know who was working with you and who was working against you. Friends you trusted could be enemies and your enemies could actually share your goals. It was… difficult."

The man shook his head. "There was a point in the war when for a while it seemed that we’d lost. For a while the enemy triumphed. Our government was in his control and he changed the laws to his benefit. He made it legal to imprison and even kill those he didn't see worthy of living, worthy of our talents and gifts. And we who fought against him were discriminated against, hated and hunted."

"Seems… harsh," Jack mused softy.

"Yes. The point of me telling you this is that during such situations the lines blur," the man said, throwing his arm around Jack's shoulders casually. "During the war's worst months, one of my friends father ran a paper that supported our goals. He was one of our greatest supporters until the moment his daughter, my friend, was taken captive. Then he turned us over to the enemy in hopes of getting his daughter back. We managed to escape, but if we hadn't…."

Harry chuckled sadly. "He didn't quite forgive himself for it after the war was over, but I could never blame him. War distorts things. And now I know better than I did back then, the lengths a father can go for his child."

"Would you do the same for Teddy?" Jack asked with a frown. "Betray someone you know?"

Harry was quiet for a moment. "No," he then said. "I would do anything to keep Teddy safe, I would wage a war against hell if it would help… but betrayal is one thing I will never be able to do. I have been betrayed too many times to do it myself."

There was a quiet moment as the ocean washed against the metal pier and the wind ruffled their clothing and hair. "Who betrayed you?" Jack then asked, raising his hand on top of the one resting on his shoulder.

"A friend of my parents who then got them killed and made me an orphan," Harry murmured. "My teacher, who machinated my whole life and turned me into his weapon of war. Actually a few of my teachers betrayed me but betrayal indicates loss of trust and I didn't truly trust them much. And… there is the one who sent me here, to your world. Not that I truly ever trusted him either."

It wasn't nearly the first time dream-Harry had suggested that he was from some other world or reality or what ever. Jack blamed it on all the times he had encountered alternate realities and travelled to other worlds. "You're not happy here? Or on Earth?" he asked, wrapping his arm around Harry's waist in comfort.

"I miss my old world. It was so different from this one. Things that I loved there don't exist here, some things I was capable there are… different here. But I've gotten adjusted," Harry assured with a soft smile. "I have already accepted that I will spend the remainder of my life here. And really, it's not as bad as it could be. Besides, I met you here."

Jack grinned. "You did, huh?"

The black haired man chuckled and reached out to lay his lips against Jack's forehead. "We can only hope to do the best possible with what we have, Jonathan, and sometime we make mistakes and bad decisions," he spoke against Jack's skin. "It's the same for everyone everywhere. Even in your hostile Pegasus galaxy."

"It's not my galaxy."

"Yes it is. You are more comfortable here than you were on Earth," Harry hummed with amusement. "But perhaps one day you will visit my galaxy."

"I will if I can, Harry. I promise."


	3. Chapter 3

"Hey," a soft voice spoke to Jack making him open his eyes tiredly. The Atlantis infirmary was dim, almost dark. Harry was standing beside his bed with a gentle smile on his face and worry shining in his eyes. The man reached out to take Jack's hand into his, the one with an IV line leading to it. "You don't look so good, Jonathan."

"I've been better," Jack cracked a grin, ignoring the fact that even in his dreams he felt weak. "But it could be worse, really. I'm actually pretty lucky despite everything."

"You don't look too lucky either," Harry chuckled sadly, sitting on the bed's edge and cradling Jack's hand in his. "Why don't you tell me what happened?"

Jack closed his eyes for a moment and smiled wryly. _'I guess I need to go through this to accept it or something,'_ he mused and opened his eyes to see Harry watching him avidly with brilliant green eyes. "The Wraith attacked us," he started. "Wanted to use Atlantis to get to Earth -- to their new dream feeding ground or something like that. Three hives at first, dozen more later… there was a battle, we managed to take out a few…."

He coughed softly, enjoying the feeling of Harry clutching onto his hand. "Some of them beamed into the city. I was one of the people in charge of getting rid of them while Weir and Sheppard and McKay tried to keep the Wraith from blowing us up. I don't know how it went on their end, though it must've gone good since we're still here."

"You were dealing with the ground troops?" Harry asked softly.

"You've been hanging around me too long, to be using military terms," Jack chuckled. "Yeah. Me and plenty of others. We were doing as well as anyone can against the Wraith and… somewhere along the way I fell. One of the Wraith fed on me. Ford got it before it could kill me, but…" he sighed, closing his eyes against the sadness in Harry's eyes. "Doc said I lost about ten years. Not much in comparison to what some others lost, but…"

"There's more?" the man asked, sliding his fingers among Jack's.

"Apparently I'm too young to be served as Wraith food," Jack chuckled painfully. "Wraith don't usually feed on kids, but when they do… it messes them up, the kids that is. If they survive anyway. Especially if it's before or during puberty. The whole physical growing thing and all…" he tightened his fingers amongst Harry's. "Doc says that I will probably never grow taller than this, not anymore. And I'll have to take hormones and other drugs to get through puberty and all…"

"Oh, Jonathan," Harry murmured, gently stroking his wrist.

"Hey, it's not as bad as it could be. I mean. It didn't get to feed everything from me. I'm not old or anything, just… kinda like twenty seven year old or something like that," Jack said quickly. "I’ve still got a lot of years to go. And I'm still not even near my real age -- I mean, I could be whole lot older. Seriously."

"Still, it's not pleasant seeing you like this," the man sighed, squeezing his hand before laying it into his lap again. "Will you be coming to Earth now that Atlantis has the ability to contact it? You got a new power source and that ship, Daedalus, can travel back and forth between the galaxies, right?"

"Yeah, but… I can't come to see you and Teddy," Jack answered mournfully. "I'm still a shrimp but I'm older. Different. I can't exactly come to you like this, I wouldn't be able to explain this to you. Confidentiality agreement and all, you know."

Harry started at the words and turned his eyes to Jack's with a look of shock in them. "Please don't say that. You promised you'd come back," he said urgently. "Especially after this… I have to see you, Jonathan."

"I can't. You wouldn't understand. I wouldn't be able to explain."

"But I do understand," the man assured, shifting closer and reaching one hand to touch Jack's face. "You have to come back." He leaned forward and kissed Jack's forehead with surprising fervour. "Please, Jonathan… I can't help you if you don't come to me first."

 

* * *

 

 _'The air on Earth smells different,'_ Jack mused, eyeing the gate room of the SGC after emerging from the gate. Doctors Weir, Beckett and McKay along with Major Sheppard were there with him, receiving the welcome of the SGC staff. As General Landry -- who'd apparently at some point replaced Jack's elder version, who on the other hand had gotten a promotion -- informed them that they have little time to relax before they had to get to business, Jack released the breath he had taken. Back in Atlantis the air had a constant scent of salt. The air here smelled like metal and oxygen, just like SGC always had.

A year had gone by and they were finally back on Earth. But it wasn't the return he had hoped for.

While the leaderly people headed for debriefing, Jack was taken to the infirmary. There Doctor Lam welcomed him in with slight awkwardness. Apparently she had read his file. "I've already been checked through and through by Doc Beckett," Jack pointed out. "Apparently I'm a somewhat healthy and slightly shrunken adult."

"Well, General O'Neill wants me to take a look at you myself and give my opinion on the matter," the young medical doctor answered, directing him to the nearest bed so that she could commence the examination. Knowing how vicious dqoctors could be, Jack sighed heavily and gave up without a fight. It would be less painful that way.

From a mirror near by he could see his face, which made him grimace. Despite everything, he rather missed the younger face of before. Not that he was exactly old even now. _'Well, at least now I know the fastest way to get through puberty,'_ Jack mused, painfully aware of the still healing scars on his chest.

The end of the year back in Atlantis hadn't been exactly… pleasant in any way. The Wraith had found them and decided to wipe them out so that they could get control of the Atlantis gate and through it get to Earth. They hadn't had any chance of survival against the hives that had headed their way. If they hadn't been able to send a message to Earth and get help from home, they would've abandoned the city and destroyed it so that the Wraith wouldn't get to the gate. But help from Earth had come and they had had a brief horrifying war. One they had just barely survived through.

Jack was still amazed by that. Sheppard had survived flying an A-bomb to one of the Wraith ships, he himself had survived a Wraith feeding and Atlantis had survived a fake self-destruct. McKay and Zelenka really were amazing at times. Cloaking an entire city…? Sweet. He would've been happy to celebrate it, if he hadn't been lying in the infirmary at the time. Well, at least he didn't go nuts with Wraith enzyme and run away like Ford had.

Ten years of his life, lost in a few minutes of splitting pain. Perhaps at one point Jack would've rejoiced at the opportunity to age a bit -- being a teenager wasn't exactly pleasant -- but not like this. Even if losing years and being fed upon hadn't been bad enough, there were two things which annoyed the hell out of him. For one, his body hadn't grown, he was still the shrimp he had been before. And for two, it was unlikely he ever would grow after this. He was going to be a goddamn shrimp for the rest of his freaking life.

At least it seemed like he wouldn't be discharged because of this. He would just have to take hormones or the next, oh, five or so years? Not nice. Not nice at all.

 _'This sucks so bad,'_ he thought while Doctor Lam took his blood sample. The fact that he wouldn't be able to contact Harry again was the worst thing about the whole thing. There was no way to explain to the man how he had changed that wouldn't be a violation of secrecy. Jack had been waiting for the chance to see Harry again for a year and now he couldn't. Ever. Which sucked so freaking much.

 _'Well, at least now I know for sure. The universe loves to mess around with me,'_ he sighed and looked up to the young doctor. "You done?" he asked out loud.

"Just about," she answered. "The samples I took need to be analysed but as far as I can tell Doctor Beckett's report is on the mark."

"Did you actually doubt it?" Jack raised his eyebrows.

"No. You did," she smiled in answer and handed a bottle of pills to him. "Two every morning and evening. Beckett's prescription, not mine, but right now I agree with it. At least until we know more about this situation."

"Nice," Jack grumbled and took the bottle. At least he wouldn't have to take shots. "Ya think I'm cleared to leave the base for a while?"

"Not just yet. I need to go through the data, talk to Doctor Beckett and report back to Generals Landry and O'Neill first. We'll see about the rest afterwards."

 

* * *

 

When Jack was finally clear of the base, there was a moment of hesitation about where to go. He wanted to go see Harry, wanted to sneak near the apartment building where he had once lived and see if the man was playing with Teddy outside like he used to. But he couldn't. Not just Harry but all the people in that apartment building knew him -- there was a high chance they would recognise him despite the changes. And the changes would make such a meeting a very… bothersome.

He wanted to get beer. Lots of beer. But couldn't because for one, he was a shrimp and they would of course ask for ID and his ID said that he was seventeen. And for two, the doctors back in SGC, Lam and Beckett both had been strict about no alcohol, not even beer, until the hormone treatment is done. No alcohol for five years. Now _that_ sucked a _lot_.

After having three cups of strong coffee at the nearest café, Jack decided that he would go to see Harry and Teddy. But first he needed to make himself look not so Jonathan O'Neill like. So he visited some stores, bought a new pair of pants and jacket and sunglasses. After a moment of thought he also bought a baseball cap too. Jonathan O'Neill was a kid of loose fitting pants, too long sweaters and no hats, so maybe this would separate him from the kid he had been a year ago.

 _'I think I should be more bothered by all this stuff,'_ Jack mused while pushing his hands into the pockets of his new jacket. _'I aged ten years in a few minutes, I should be, like, throwing a fit or something.'_   But then again with all the shit that had happened to him over the years, this was just one mess among many. One more weirdness for him to get adjusted to.

The apartment building hadn't changed, and neither had the neighbourhood. His apartment had been rented by the looks of the new curtains and houseplants sitting on the inner windowsill. There were two kids playing in the playground -- new kids, apparently they had moved in during the last year when Jack had been gone -- but no sign of Teddy or Harry. Harry's car was missing too so they were apparently not home.

 _'Now what?'_ Jack sighed, glanced around. After a moment of thought he walked to a near by park bench and sat down, pulling his new SGC issued cell phone from his pocket and starting to play games with it. It made him strangely miss one of those hand held computers Sheppard carried around. Jack had lost count of how many times people had mistaken it for something important when Sheppard had been playing Tetris or something similar on those things.

He waited almost an hour, glancing up every time he heard a car driving into the parking lot. Then finally Harry returned home with Teddy. It looked like the kid had been in school and by the paper bags Harry carried Jack concluded that they had visited the grocers too.

Harry hadn't changed much. His hair was slightly longer, but everything else was the same. Still tall and still a bit too thin for his own good. Teddy, on other hand, had grown. _'Seven years already, eh, Teddy,'_ Jack thought with a little bit of pride and sadness as he watched them head towards the front door.

It was strange, it really was. He had been gone for a year, he hadn't seen Harry or Teddy aside from pictures and dreams… but he wanted to go to them _so much_. One would've thought that such emotions would fade in a year, but no. He missed them more now than he had when he had left.

 _'And I can't go. Just… great. Typical,'_ he thought, shoving his cell phone into his pocket and slumping slightly on the bench. His eyes followed the two sadly as Harry opened the door to let Teddy into the apartment building. _'Well, at least I get to see them. At least they're fine --'_

His thought trailed away. Teddy had skipped inside but Harry hesitated. The man stopped and turned -- and then he was looking right at Jack. His breath stilling somewhere in middle of his throat, Jack was suddenly overcome by a strange mixture of panic and relief. _'He can't know it's me, he can't… it's impossible.'_

Harry let the door swing shut, staring at Jack with a confused frown. Then as the man knelt to lower his shopping bags to the porch, Jack did the only reasonable thing that came to mind. He bolted up and ran. _'No, no, no, I can't stay here. He can't see me, he can't know it's me,'_ he thought, hurriedly jogging down the street and away from the apartment building.

He could almost hear Harry calling after him. It hurt not to listen, to run away, but he couldn't stay. Even if part of him wanted to see Harry up-close, a bigger part of him knew that it would be a violation of his orders. He didn't even want Harry to see him like this anyway, it would just confuse the man. And calling after him? Hah. It was probably his overactive imagination anyway.

 

* * *

 

"You foolish man," Harry sighed, startling Jack out of his hazy dreams. "You come to me and then you run away without giving me the chance to say anything or even raise my hand in greeting? What was that about?"

"Uh?" Jack blinked, looking up at the man who was standing over him with long arms crossed over his chest and a dismayed look on his face. With another blink Jack quickly sat up to see that he was in the guest quarters as SGC. "I couldn't exactly walk up to you and say hello, you know," he said with self defence. "I aged ten years in one, how would you take that?"

The man snorted in a manner that was so unlike Harry that Jack had to gape. The weird accepting looseness that usually hung about Harry was gone and he was possibly the most annoyed Jack had ever seen him be. "Better than you think," the man said, throwing his hands up in the air. "For someone like me this isn't really that weird, Jonathan. I've seen things a lot weirder."

"Well, I have. You haven't," Jack mumbled, knowing that the man was just a figment of his imagination right then. Maybe he should've talked to Heightmeyer or some other shrink about these dreams. Now that he thought about it, dreaming of one man every single night couldn't be healthy, right?

"Hah," Harry muttered, stalked up to him and sat to the bed's edge. Before Jack could say anything he found himself shoved back down, his head hitting the pillow with muffled thump. "I have seen spectres and apparitions, half-human-half-animal creatures, a man with two faces, a bird reborn from fire, a sixty food snake with a deadly gaze, soul sucking creatures that eat emotions, a man's monthly transformation into a monster and people capable of taking the forms of animals. I fought against monsters and murders ever since I was eleven and I have even seen in an instant an adult's head turns into that of an infant and how a fall through a veil can take a man's existence away. And after all this I'm raising a boy capable of looking like whatever he wants to look like."

Jack stared the man with confusion as Harry leaned over him, pressing his palm hard against his chest just where the Wraith had fed. "This, Jonathan. This is not the pinnacle of oddities that I have seen," Harry assured him with a thick, desperate voice. "And neither are you."

Though he tried to answer, Jack found that he couldn't. Harry's hand was heavy and warm -- and almost burning -- on his chest and before he could formulate words in his head, the man's other hand pressed against his forehead. Then there was rushing of _something_ inside him and he couldn't think or move.

"Breath, Jonathan," Harry ordered and Jack drew a raspy breath. Just before he was lost in warm light, he stared up to Harry's bright eyes with wonder and suddenly knew that it wasn't a dream.

 

* * *

 

"I can't explain it," Doctor Beckett said the following day. He had broken off from selecting the new personnel for Atlantis when Jack had reported to Doctor Lam who on other hand could find nothing wrong with Jack "As far as I can tell, he's a healthy twenty year old. Hormones and all."

"And he was an unhealthy twenty seven year old yesterday," Weir spoke slowly while Jack stared at the floor with a troubled frown. She turned to look at him. "Do you know what happened to you, Jonathan?"

Jack sighed and scratched the back of his head. "I went to bed after taking my stupid hormones -- no offence Doctors -- and I woke up like this," he lowered his hands to his lap and looked up with a frown. His heart was telling him that he knew perfectly well what had happened but his mind wouldn't believe it. "I feel better, though. Hell, the feeding marks are gone too. Not that there was much of them left."

"Aye, they are," Beckett agreed, clearly disturbed by the whole thing. "Like they were never there."

"And you can't find a scientific explanation for this?" General Landry asked, looking between Beckett and Lam.

"No. It should be impossible," Lam shook her head. "He's not only younger but he is also more developed than before. Heavier and taller for one and his physical chemistry has reverted to the normal levels of a twenty year old male -- hormone activity included.  It's like something levelled his physique into a more… natural state."

"So, this couldn't have happened on its own?"

"No. Something made this happen, but it was nothing that was previously present in Mister O'Neill's body," she nodded strictly.

"Could it be some sort of involvement by aliens?" Weir asked, raising her eyebrows towards Jack. "The Asgard for one have a high opinion of you, could it be that --"

"Not me," Jack shook his head. "Old man General maybe, but not me. I'm just a clone -- a by-product. They don't care about me too much."

"And even if they did, I think they would've let us know before doing this," Landry nodded, though he looked troubled. "I'll have someone check the security footage of the corridor outside the guest quarters. Maybe that will give us some leads," he looked at Weir. "But right now I think we need to resume our discussion of your expedition."

"You'll be alright, Jonathan?" Weir asked.

"I'm fine. Go," Jack made a dismissing motion with his hand. Weir and Landry left and after running a few tests Beckett had to head off to resume his work too. "You think I can leave too? I wanna go and check the security footage," Jack said to Lam.

"Well, there’s nothing to be done," she admitted. "Just… come back right away if something else changes."

"I will," Jack nodded and quickly headed out. Tugging the sleeve of his jacket, he sighed. During the night he had gone through a growth spurt of about three inches. And grown out of everything he had. _'Now I gotta get a new uniform and everything,'_ he mused with annoyance, but was too worried about the whole thing for that thought to linger.

The security footage at first showed nothing. During the night there had been little to no activity outside Jack's temporary quarters. But then, around two o’clock, he had gotten a visitor. At least the light shining from underneath the guest room's door indicated so.

 _'Only a few things make light like that. First is Asgard beams. Then there’s Wraith culling beams…'_ Jack thought darkly while one of the technicians halted the footage to the point of the white flash. _'And then there are… the Ancients. Ascended Ancient to be exact. And their weird glowyness.'_

But Harry couldn't be… right?

But before Jack could explore the possibilities of that thought, he was distracted from it by Landry. "General O'Neill wants to talk with ya," the man said. "He's on the phone."

Giving the computer screen and the frozen image of light another look, Jack followed the General up to the briefing room. Jack gave Caldwell and the other military officers a brief nod before walking into the office which now belonged to Landry. The red phone sitting on the desk was almost painfully familiar -- and even though his elder self had probably used it a lot, it felt rather weird to pick it up.

"Whaddya want, old man?" Jack greeted him rather shortly while leaning onto the desk's edge. Landry gave him a slightly exasperated but mostly amused look before pulling the door shut and returning to the briefing. "I was kinda in middle of figuring out my latest life changing transformation."

"Yeah, Landry told me about that. What is it with you and jumping through ages? Seventeen or twenty seven didn't work for ya?"

"I wanna keep marking the _'under the age of twenty five'_ boxes when I fill out forms," Jack answered casually. "Congrats, by the way. I heard some idiot promoted you. Again. What's with that? We were a Colonel like forever and suddenly you're promoted twice in, what, two years?"

"Yeah… I'm still not sure where they got that idea. Probably rushing to replace Hammond in the Home World Security office," the General sighed. "But that's not what I'm calling for. The IOA, Joint Chiefs and the President are all pressing me to decide about the military leadership of Atlantis. Joint Chiefs want Caldwell. Weir says it's gotta be Sheppard -- and she has IOA on her side. President decided to go with whoever I go with."

"And… you called me?" Jack asked, raising his eyebrows with surprise even though it couldn't be seen.

"Landry called me when Weir started to bring out the big flashy diplomatic guns," the General chuckled dryly. "She'll probably have her head, you know. She has so many people wrapped around her pinky that she can get pretty much anything she wants. But it's up me to decide if there will be a pissing match over it."

"I'm still not sure why you called me," Jack said flatly.

"Fine. I want your input on this. You have the first hand experience, so… is it wise to leave Sheppard in charge of Atlantis's military aspect or not?"

"Right…" Jack sighed and stared up at the office's ceiling for a moment. "There are better commanders out there," he finally admitted. "Sheppard has problems with the chain of command whenever it gets in the way of what he thinks is right. But… there will be no one better for _this_ job. No way in hell."

"You really think so?"

"Atlantis ain't like Stargate Command. It's not just a job which you leave in the locker-room at the end of the day; it's a life for us. We live it every single minute of every freaking day," Jack sighed. "And Sheppard makes that work. For any other military officer, especially one who hasn't experienced what we did during the first year… Atlantis would be just a base in another galaxy."

"Wow," the General murmured, probably more impressed by the fact that he had given a speech rather than by the speech itself.

"You put anyone else in command but Sheppard and the place will fall apart. It’ll become a base and you'll find that people will be less likely to push themselves over their limits for it," Jack snorted. "He ain't perfect, no one is, but he's the best Atlantis could get. He’ll spend his dying breath defending that city and everyone in it and if that doesn't cover any character flaws he might have, I don't know what does."

"Hm. I guess we gotta promote him then," the General murmured, before getting a new tone of voice. "Oh, that reminds me. You're basically older now, right?"

"I'm not getting back in the military, old man," the younger one said before the other could get any further. His mind shifted to Harry and Teddy. However this would turn out, whatever Harry had done to him and however he had done it aside… he wasn't going to give up the chance. Not yet.

"You're not?"

"Nope. You could get me a new ID, though. It would be nice to get some beer." Since he didn't need to take hormones, he could have beer. Probably. He sure as hell wasn't going to risk it by asking Lam or Beckett and giving them the chance to say no.

"I'll see what I can do. Now. Tell me about this healing thing that happened," the General urged. "You don't seem too bothered by it so you gotta have an idea about what's going on."

"Ah… maybe I have some idea," Jack grimaced. "But I wanna make sure, first. How about I'll call you back? Oh, and do you think you could get Landry to clear me to leave the base for a while?"

 

* * *

 

When Jack was finally cleared to leave the base again, he had been given a new uniform, IDs and his older self had even gotten him an official driver's licence. Getting the chance to drive after two years of automobile-deprivation was a bit of rush; though no way could the SUV he had been given compare with his Puddle Jumpers. But then again, nothing really could.

When he drove into the parking lot of the apartment building where he had once lived, he immediately noticed that Harry's car was there. It was a good sign, even though it made him feel annoyingly nervous. Ignoring that, he locked the SUV up and headed for the building.  There was no sign of Harry and Teddy outside, so he headed to the front door, through the corridor and to the elevator. In no time he was ringing Harry's doorbell. It was Teddy who opened the door.

"Hi there," Jack said with a little bit of surprise, wondering when this change had happened. Previously Harry had never let Teddy open the door -- one example of how over protective the man was of the boy. "Is your dad home? Could you go get him for me?"

"He can't get up, he's sick," the seven year old boy spoke with a serious voice, sizing Jack up. The now twenty year old got the strangest feeling that the kid blamed him for something, there was a certain accusation in the kid's eyes. Then Teddy turned to call over his shoulder. "Dad, Jonathan is here! Should I let him in?"

While Jack's eyes widened with shock, Harry's calm voice answered from inside. "Let him in, Teddy."

Feeling a little bit out of his depth, Jack followed the still brooding kid inside, slowly closing the door after him. Harry was sitting on the living room couch, and he certainly looked sick. He was pale and there were shadows under his eyes. He was also surrounded by blankets and cradling a mug of what looked like hot tea.

"There you are," the man spoke to Jack, smiling over the steam rising from the mug while Teddy jumped onto the couch and pressed against the man's left side. The boy then started to stare Jack like he had done something to him. Harry didn't seem to notice. "I was starting to think you wouldn't come."

"Harry, what…?" Jack trailed away, not sure what he wanted to say or ask. Harry was looking at him like nothing was out of the ordinary, like this had been just a pre-arranged visit and Jack had been late. Like aging a few years in one was just a normal thing. Jack blinked. "How come you're sick?" he asked, not knowing what else to ask. Harry had been just fine before.

"In this place you pay a price for healing -- and there was quite bit in you to be healed. I'll be fine in a day or two," Harry chuckled, and took a sip of his tea. Then he was patting the couch on the right side. "Come here and we'll talk about other worlds and alternate realities."

Later, Jack made Harry and Teddy dinner, listening to Harry's careful instructions while making it. He had never been much of a cook, but Harry was and on top of it the man could give nice clean instructions. The food came out better than Jack dared to hope, he was almost proud to serve it in the living room where Harry still sat. After eating, Harry fell asleep and Jack stayed, watching over him as he rested to regain his strength and watching over Teddy who still kept glaring at him.

"Alright, kiddo, what did I do wrong?" Jack finally asked quietly over the sounds coming from the almost silenced TV, one hand wrapped over Harry's shoulder and enjoying the feel of the man's head resting against his shoulder. "I must've done something really bad for you to hate me this much."

"You made dad cry," the boy accused.

"I did?"

"Yeah. When you got older, dad cried. Then he went and healed you and he got sick. It's your fault."

"That's… bad," Jack shifted, even after all Harry had told him he still found it unnerving that the kid could accept such weird things so easily. "I didn't mean to, you know. I didn't do it on purpose. And what your dad did to me that made him sick, I didn't ask for it. I'm grateful, of course, but he shouldn't have done it."

The boy narrowed his eyes, assessing him for a moment before giving a serious nod. Then he grabbed a book from the floor -- an astronomy book -- and lay down on the couch, his head resting on Harry's thigh. Jack looked over him and Harry and smiled despite how weird it was.

The next day he called the old man to get Harry and Teddy the security clearance. It was a bit too late, they had known classified things for far longer than Jack cared to count, but he still felt it was prudent.

 

* * *

 

"So, lemme get this straight," the General spoke, pacing back and forth in Harry's living room. Jack on other hand sat slouched on the couch beside Harry who was combing his fingers through Teddy's hair. The kid still hadn't fully forgiven Jack but it seemed like some of the suspicion had been shifted onto the General's shoulders, though the old man didn't seem to care.  "You two are from an alternate reality," Jack's elder version said, pointing at Harry and Teddy.

"Yes," Harry answered simply, his lips twitching in a manner that told Jack that the man was withholding a smile. "We are from a world similar to but still different from your Earth. We were thrown here five years ago, and since then we have been living as inconspicuously as possible among your people."

"You certainly sound like an alternate-reality-alien," the General grumbled.

"It's called an accent, old man. A British accent to be exact," Jack rolled his eyes and Harry's lips twitched even more.

"No, I mean he speaks like… high and mighty but… not. Kinda like the Tollans speak. Used to speak," the old man frowned before narrowing his eyes with suspicion. "I bet your version of Earth is all advanced and stuff."

"No, not really," Harry laughed softly. "Your Earth is in fact more advanced. In my world there was no Stargate program or space ships capable or interstellar travel. Not that I know of anyway."

"Uhhuh. And how do you know about that again?"

"He's telepathic. Are you acting like an idiot on purpose?" Jack asked flatly.

"I have noticed that simplifying weird creepy things helps me understand them, thank you very much," the General glared at him before sinking to sit on one of Harry's armchairs. He turned to look at Harry. "So, telepathic abilities among the humans of _your_ Earth… nothing out of ordinary?"

Harry hesitated before sighing. "Yes, and no. I only became telepathic after our arrival here," he said, brushing his fingers over Teddy's scalp again. "I had abilities in my old reality and they varied much more than the abilities I have here. I believe that in my Earth there was an element that amplified the natural abilities of some humans. That element is missing here, so my abilities have been… diminished and simplified."

"Uhhuh… some magical force that was there isn't here and because of that you are telepathic? How does that make sense?" the old man raised his eyebrows.

"In my old world I could change the forms and functions of objects as I saw fit, I could control the energies of the world and bend them to my will, I could give items life and create things out of seemingly nothing… among other things. I can't do any of those things here." Harry shrugged. "Though I never said that telepathy is the extent of my abilities."

"It isn't?" Jack and the General asked in unison.

"No," Harry smiled, glancing at Teddy. "And Teddy also has a… genetic ability that I do not posses."

"He does? This mean that he can do all sorts of super-powery stuff?" the General asked curiously, though Jack already had a hunch of what the boy could do.

"He only has one… power right now, the one he was born with. He is too young to learn the rest. Once he is eleven, I will begin teaching him the abilities I have gained here," the black haired man nodded, bending his head to look at the boy. "Teddy, why don't you show the General your favourite colour?"

"Really?" the boy asked in shock. When Harry smiled and nodded, the boy still looked a bit shocked. Then he turned to look at Jack's elder version and frowned with concentration. The black colour of his hair seemed to drain away before it was replaced by striking shade of azure.

Harry chuckled at the boy's bright grin and ruffled his hand through the blue hair while Jack and the General stared with their mouths slack. "Metamorphism," Harry said. "It was an ability of few in my world. Teddy's mother had it as well, though she preferred shades of pink and purple. In time and with a little training Teddy will be capable of taking any physical appearance he chooses."

"Is that physically possible?" the General asked after a moment.

Harry smiled amusedly, kissing the boy's blue hair before turning his attention to the elder man. "Of course, in order to keep appearances Teddy keeps his hair black in public. But I promised him that once he's a bit older he can start… dyeing his hair."

"Okay, weird hair changing abilities and other funky-super-powers aside… you read his mind?" the old man asked, pointing at Jack. "And like that, got the knowledge of classified things?"

"He got close to my family, I had to make sure that he was no threat to Teddy or myself. And later, when he told me he was leaving, I wanted to make sure he would be fine. So I formed a… mental connection to him," Harry raised his hand to stall the General's questions. "I had to make sure he would be alright."

"What I don't get is how you could keep a mental connection to me when I was in the Pegasus galaxy," Jack frowned a little. "I mean… it's really far away, right?"

"Time and distance are relative, Jonathan," Harry shrugged.

The General snorted. "You and Carter would get along well," he muttered before frowning thoughtfully. "You're a breach of security, though. You and the kid both."

"He's known all this for over year now, you know," Jack pointed. "He hasn't exactly gone to the press with it."

"And I'm a fantasy book author," Harry chuckled. "If I did go to press, they would just think I was speaking of a new book, probably."

The General didn't say anything for a while, looking thoughtful. Then he pointed between Harry and Jack. "Are you two, you know, an item then?" he asked, glancing at Jack. "He's the reason you won't rejoin the military. And why you want me to get him a security clearance instead of… of something else."

Jack glanced at Harry who nodded. "Ah… yeah," he said. "He was the one who healed me too… kinda." He glanced at the black haired man. "How did you get to SGC anyway?"

"Teleportation," Harry answered with the slightest frown. "That too got a bit strange after I arrived here. Back in my reality it happened with a cracking noise. Here it's silent but I'm always surrounded by brilliant light when I do it."

"Huh," the General blinked few times and then said, "Well, uh…. good for ya?"

Harry and Teddy were given security clearance before the day ended, and the matter of Jack's miraculous healing was pushed under the carpet. The General did spend some ten minutes trying to persuade Harry to take part in the SGC program -- even without proper training, a man with psychic abilities could come in handy -- but Harry declined. "I might consider it once Teddy is of the age," he said. "But not right now."

Jack was insanely grateful that the matter was closed with that. Ever since witnessing Teddy's abilities he had been a bit afraid that those abilities would end the kid in a laboratory somewhere. Thankfully his elder version seemed to think that scientific ventures weren't necessary, even though both of them knew perfectly well how valuable such an ability could be out in the field.

Jack spent the rest of his time on Earth with Harry and Teddy, coming to terms with the new weird changes in his life. It wasn't really that bad in the end, even though the incapability of keeping anything secret from Harry did unnerve him just a bit. But if Harry, despite seeing his mind and everything in it, still liked him, he figured that it could be worse. And Harry had healed him, sorta, and that overweighed all the cons in the matter.

Back in SGC, Weir got her head. Sheppard was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel -- and then the man never shut up about it. Doctors Beckett and McKay hired some new personnel and then finally, after a month or so on Earth, Jack had to say goodbye to Harry and Teddy again.

"We have to return to Atlantis by Daedalus," he said, folding Harry into his embrace and holding him close. "Eighteen days stuck in a spaceship. I can just see it, I'm gonna go nuts."

"Considering the distance, eighteen days isn't that much," Harry pointed out to him, leaning down so that their foreheads touched. "And I'll keep you company in your dreams. Just like I did before."

Jack grinned crookedly. "I kept thinking that it was just a dream, that you were a means for my mind to come to terms with the things happening around me," he admitted and then blinked. "Wait, does this mean that all the things you told me were true? About the war and everything? And you really trained to be a law enforcement officer?"

"Yeah, never got the change to actually be one though. I was sent here just a little after my training was over," the other answered with a sad chuckle, brushing his fingertips over Jack's cheek -- a cheek which Jack had been forced to start shaving again. "Take care of yourself in the Pegasus galaxy, Jonathan."

"I will," Jack promised.

This time Teddy's farewell hug wasn't so teary and Harry's kiss was placed to Jack's lips instead his forehead.

 

* * *

 

"How were you sent here anyway?" Jack asked while he and Harry wandered the dimmed corridors of the Daedalus. He knew that if it was reality, there would be people there, rushing back and forth in the corridors and crowding the halls. Even during night time there was always someone working on ships like these. "I know that there is some alien tech out there that can sent people into alternate realities, but…."

"But I said my kind isn't technologically advanced. I didn't lie, we aren't," Harry answered, his fingers sliding amongst Jack's. "But certain people within my world have abilities that can create effects similar to those of your technology. I am one of those people, so is Teddy, and so is the man who sent me to your reality."

"You said that he betrayed you…?" Jack raised his eyebrows.

"In a manner of speaking he did, but I didn't really trust him in the first place. He fought on the side opposite to mine in the war -- in fact, he was one of the main players in the war," Harry shrugged. "But he seemed to change before the war ended, get new priorities. He was punished for his crimes during the war, of course, but not as severely as some… and in the end we decided that it was safe to set him free. He used his first moments of freedom to attack me."

"And sent you to another reality? Why?"

"Punishment, revenge…" Harry shrugged. "I killed his leader. I also took away his reputation and his family funds -- they were transferred to his son with strict warnings not to give him any access to them. I guess he couldn't handle that, so he took his revenge. He knew he couldn't kill me in fair duel, or even an unfair one, so… he attacked from behind and banished me from his world instead. I was holding Teddy at the time and he was banished with me."

"Your people can do that? With these powers you have?" Jack asked with shock.

"Not just like that. I for one never had the ability. Talents like that have to be studied, learned… mastered. It takes time, patience and knowledge," the black haired man sighed. "I don't know where or how he learned to do it, but I suspect that the talent is very old. The sort that is lost in time."

Jack thought about it for a moment and then shook his head. "Nope, I can't really wrap my mind around your people. Your world’s gotta be way different from mine."

Harry chuckled. "Not really. Overall they’re pretty similar. We, the people with these gifts, just make the difference. And we were living underneath the surface, hiding from the naked eye. Most people in that world didn't even know we existed," he looked up. "There weren't so many of us in the end. In UK there were only about ten thousand of us, and our society in the UK was the densest in the world."

"Not much, huh," Jack murmured.

"No, not really," Harry shook his head. Then he looked at Jack. "So, tell me about this… ship," he urged, glancing around in the hall. "There wasn't anything like this in my home world. And I didn't know of their existence in your world either."

"That's because it's all secret," Jack grinned before launching into an explanation of the 303 which evolved into the 304 program and about the help they has gotten from Asgard. "We have one of them aboard, you know. An Asgard that is. Intergalactic space travel is kinda new to us, so we need a bit help with it," Jack said. "I think his name is Hermiod."

"And he really is one of those small grey skinned aliens?" Harry asked curiously.

"With big black eyes and massive brains, yeah," Jack nodded. "They're cool, really. Bit unfeeling and not much on the pleasantries, but I guess they have better things to do than exchanging small talk." He explains about the Asgard and how they came to know them, trailing off into an explanation about the Ancients and their alliance -- and he talked a bit about the Nox too and wondered about the Furlings. Harry listened to it all with a look of fascination on his face.

"For a long while I thought that the world I had been thrown into was boring," the black haired man mused. "Things which made my world interesting and exciting were missing, so…. But now I find this," he motioned towards a nearby window from where they could see the colourful rushing of hyperspace. "It's incredible. It truly is."

"Your world doesn't have any of this?" Jack asked.

"If it does, I was not aware of it," Harry shrugged. He took a deep breath and released it somehow contently. "I am happy that I got the chance to learn of this," he said. "In my world we barely looked outside the atmosphere. It's… comforting to know that there is more."

"Yeah, it is kinda reassuring. Though space could do without things like the Wraith and Goa'uld and other baddies," Jack mused, rubbing the back of Harry's palm with his thumb. "Well, the Goa'uld have almost been wiped out. Maybe someday soon we'll do the same to the Wraith."

"Maybe," Harry nodded, looking at him.

Feeling strangely self conscious, Jack chuckled. "This has gotta be the weirdest relationship ever," he muttered, tightening his hold on Harry's hand. "Long distance relationship with the longest distance ever too."

"It doesn't matter," Harry assured with a smile. Then the man bent his head and pressed a chaste kiss to the other's lips. "Who cares if you're a clone of a man and I'm a psychic from another reality and we have the void of space between us? It works."


	4. Chapter 4

Things had settled into their usual course in the Pegasus galaxy and people took Jack's healing pretty well. Jack didn't say how or who did it, so everyone just assumed that it had been the Asgard who had helped him. He left them with that delusion, even though it felt a bit unfair. People thought that he was somehow closer to the Asgard than most and had some privileges because of it -- which wasn't the case.

Of course the usual course of Atlantis was a bit unusual. There had been a Wraith computer virus on Daedalus which had tried to kill them all, and then Sheppard picked up another stray, and McKay got the consciousness of a female Marine occupying his brain for a while and so forth and so forth, but it was all in a day's work on Atlantis. Or a few weeks work, anyway.

Jack himself continued to work with Zelenka mostly, now working with the Control Chair trying to figure out the exact way to remote control the Jumpers. It had been something McKay had tried during the Siege but it hadn't worked, which had ended up with Sheppard flying a suicide mission. The man had survived, obviously but now Zelenka wanted to perfect the method of remote controlling the Jumpers in case something similar happened again.

Other than working with the Czech scientist, Jack was also put in charge of training the new personnel on flying the Jumpers. Some of the new personnel had the ATA gene naturally, others received Beckett's legal-in-the-Pegasus-galaxy gene therapy, and in the end Jack had some thirty students to introduce to the wonders of flying. It was rather fun.

Since getting a ZPM to the city, they had started making some interesting discoveries. Previously the city had been sorely under-powered but now with an actual Ancient power source they could activate systems they hadn't even considered previously. Jack had the privilege of working with Zelenka on that as well, as McKay kept hogging Sheppard to himself. Not that he minded too much.

"I'm still waiting for one of them to snap," Jack mused while leaning onto Zelenka's table, watching how Sheppard and McKay almost inanely argued about some ancient gismo they had found. McKay was just arguing for the sake of argument and Sheppard was arguing because he obviously enjoyed rousing the scientist. They reminded Jack of the times long since pass; back when he had clashed in verbal duels with Daniel. "They've been at it for months now."

"Hm," the Czech answered with disinterest, glancing up. "It's a classing lock up. They're too good friends to risk more."

"Yeah. And there are the military rules to consider too. Poor bastards," Jack muttered and grinned a McKay threw his hands up in the air before pointing at Sheppard and ordering the Colonel to get him coffee before people started dying. Sheppard of course went nowhere, which lead to another argument. A few minutes later they left together, arguing all the way.

"Could be that they're content like that," Zelenka said, turning his attention to his computer again.

Jack snorted. "Yeah right," he muttered. Just like he had been so very content back in the position of Colonel, wanting something he couldn't have. God, was he ever happy he didn't have to go back to that. Shaking his head he glanced at the scientist. "I think something to eat is in order. You want anything?"

"Cup of coffee would be nice if it's not too much trouble. I'm going to need all the caffeine I can get if the Colonel leaves McKay irritated. He's going to take it out on me."

"Alright, Doc Z." Jack grinned. "I'll be right back."

The newest stray was in the mess hall when Jack got there, watched over by a Marine. Ronon Dex was the man's name. He sort of reminded Jack of Teal'c but not even nearly. Where Teal'c was calm and collected, this man was all anxiousness and fire under the surface. Explosive and wild. It was easy to tell why Sheppard had his eyes on the man, though. Every move he made breathed lethal skill and experience and that was what they needed in the war against the Wraith.

 _'Sheppard's trying to get that man on his team, to replace Ford,'_ Jack mused, thinking back to the young Lieutenant who had ran off all high on Wraith juices. He frowned darkly and turned to get something to eat. At the sight of the loaded counter, he smiled widely. It was good to have proper food again.

 

* * *

 

"So, how are things on Earth?" Jack asked, ignoring the part of himself which was insisting that lying in Harry's lap probably made him look like an idiot. He didn't care. The view of Atlantis from the pier was great and Harry was comfortable.

"Same old, I suppose," the other murmured distractedly, running his fingers through Jack's short hair in the manner previously reserved only for Teddy's hair. "Things rarely seem to change on your Earth. Even when they do."

"Hm…" Jack closed his eyes, leaning into the touch. Aside from the occasional hair-ruffle-of-manly-affection, no one had ever paid this much attention to his scalp. It felt nice. "Yeah, most of the life changing stuff is classified. It will be interesting when they declassify the Stargate program."

"It's going to be declassified?" Harry asked with surprise.

"They can't keep it secret forever, it's too big and we all know that it's just gonna get bigger with time. I mean, we're building more space ships each year! Soon there will be too many of them for us to hide. I think they're just waiting for us to off all the main baddies so that when they do declassify it, it won't seem so scary and planet threatening."

"That makes sense I suppose."

"Is something wrong? You're being pretty quiet," Jack glanced up at the other.

The hand in Jack's hair stilled for a moment before the fingers started to draw circles. Harry sighed and shook his head. "General O'Neill visited me today," he said thoughtfully. "He asked for my help. Mine and especially Teddy's."

"With what?" Jack asked suspiciously, not liking the idea of his older self meeting with Harry behind his back.

"With the Asgard," Harry answered with a sympathetic smile, turning his attention to night-time Atlantis. "He told me about the Asgard way of… reproduction, if it can be called that. Well, I knew about it already, I learned about it from you, but… he made me aware that Teddy and I might have the key for their survival."

Jack blinked and then sat up, turning to face the man. He had heard this music before and he didn't quite like it. It was those same notions that had created him, after all. "You? You could help solve their cloning problems?"

"Teddy and I aren't from your Earth, and we are… different from you," the man shrugged. "We have abilities you do not have, but ones which might be in your reach through evolution. From what I gather, we are physically more… advanced than you. And Teddy has the ability to affect his on physiology however he chooses. We could very well be the answer the Asgard have sought for centuries."

"Yeah… yeah but, uh…" Jack frowned. "I have first hand experience with that stuff and lemme tell you, it's no cake walk."

"You were created by a rogue scientist, Jonathan. It wasn't authorized by the Asgard High Council," Harry reminded needlessly, taking the other's hands and entwining their fingers. "That will not be the case with myself and Teddy. The General has yet to inform anyone of my and Teddy's existence, so if I decline no one will be the wiser. But he assures me that if we were to take part in this, he would make sure that we were treated… gracefully."

"And exactly what does that mean?" Jack asked with a frown. "You'd be a well kept lab rat with a nice cage and wheel to run in?"

Harry chuckled. "More along the lines of allowing the Asgard to study us for a little while and see if we have what they need. And even if we do have their key, there would be no loss of freedom or rights. You know yourself that the Asgard are an honourable race. Prudish maybe, but honourable."

Jack didn't allow the momentary smirk to take away his frown. "I don't like it," he said, squeezing the other's hands. "I like the Asgard as much as anyone does and it sucks that they’re dying… but letting yourself become their research material, just…" he shook his head. "I don't like it."

"I know," Harry murmured, shifting closer and pressing their foreheads together. "I told the General that I would think about it, but I have yet to make my decision. However… I am considering it seriously. If we could save the Asgard, maybe even give them the ability to reproduce normally while maintaining their intellect…. We have no right to keep it from them. We are but guests in your reality and they are an entire race on the brink of extinction."

"The needs of the many don't always out weigh the needs of the few," Jack argued.

Harry snorted softly and then started to laugh. Jack couldn't hold back a small grin of his own, which was then taken away by the other's smiling lips. "Maiming Star Trek quotes won't help," the man's voice was warm with fondness as he pulled back. "If we can help, we should. But only if they assure Teddy's safety."

"And yours too," Jack quickly insisted.

The black haired man smiled. "And mine too," he promised.

 

* * *

 

Jack was worried. He hid it well, but it was there with him every morning he woke up. He hadn't gotten any Harry-induced dreams since their conversation about helping the Asgard and he couldn't help but wonder what that meant. Sure, he didn't see those dreams _every_ night, but usually he got at least two of them in a week. And once two weeks had gone by without a dream of Harry, he couldn't help but worry.

Things went normally in Atlantis, wacky adventures and life changing revelations and all. The flag-ship team found a planet with a penal-system from hell, with whom they decide not to make any trading. Then McKay blew up a solar system -- five sixths of it -- which seemed to put a wedge into the budding relationship the man had with Sheppard. Some time after that they discovered a Wraith girl on some planet, who then used Beckett's next breakthrough and turned herself into a monster. Sheppard got bitten and then he too started to turn into a monster. He was changed back, and at the end of the incident everything was back to normal. Mostly.

Jack found himself mostly unable to follow these events and was happy that Weir, Beckett, McKay and Sheppard were in charge of everything. He did remark that now McKay could join Carter's Blowing-Up-Really-Big-Things club and how cool Sheppard's eyes looked when he had been turning into a bug, but that was about it. Mostly his mind was on Harry and the fact that two weeks had changed into a month.

Sometime after the discovery and destruction of an Ancient war ship named Aurora -- which was a pity, an Ancient war ship to toy with would've been really cool -- Caldwell and the Daedalus headed back towards Earth. Jack was tempted to ask him to ask General O'Neill about Harry but he decided against it. It would take eighteen days for the ship to reach Earth, and that just… wasn't enough time. So, instead he waited, hoping that he would get word from Harry soon.

A few more days went by without a sound from Harry and Jack started to get… twitchy about it. He tried not to think of all the possible reasons as to why Harry wasn't contacting him anymore, but it didn't help. His mind flashed between mental images of a few sorts of laboratories and he didn't like a single one of them.

"You've been awfully nervous lately," Zelenka noted as they were doing yet another set of repairs for yet another Jumper that someone had managed to yet again crash. "Is something wrong?"

"I'm not nervous," Jack denied indignantly, leaning onto the Jumper's side and folding his arms. Zelenka glanced up from where he had been fiddling with the engines. "Well… maybe a little," he admitted with a sigh and looked away. What was he supposed to say, though? That he was worried for his psychic boyfriend who was in another galaxy because he hadn't gotten any dreams of the said boyfriend?

"So?" Zelenka glanced at him. "What's the matter?"

Jack looked at him and then shook his head. "It doesn't matter, I guess," he muttered. It did, but, well… he couldn't do anything from here. Not unless he went back to Earth first. And he doubted that Weir would let him use their precious single ZPM to gate to Earth without a good reason -- a reason he wasn't completely capable of giving.

"It doesn't seem that way."

"Well, it does matter, but… just never mind," Jack sighed, making a dismissing motion with his hand. _'If Harry won't call back tonight, I'll ask Weir if she'll let me go back to Earth. Daedalus is on its way there anyway, I'll just hitch a ride back….'_

Harry did not appear in Jack's next dream. It took Jack some time to convince Weir that he absolutely had to contact Earth. "Come on, the ZPM is no where near being depleted, right? Just this once?" Jack said a few times until finally the woman gave in, probably out of misplaced respect towards the General. Or possibly pity, she was looking at him with worried eyes at the end of the conversation.

The wormhole was established and Jack got the pleasure of making the radio contact. Landry wasn't happy to hear from him, and was even less happy to connect him to pentagon, but he did. "Fess up, old man," Jack spoke into his headset, stepping a bit aside from Stargate operations so that he could talk in private. As private as one could get on an open channel. "What did you do to him?"

" _I_ did nothing. If you could've just waited a little while, you would've heard from Harry himself that he was, is, in the Ida galaxy," the General sounded exactly as grumpy as Jack felt. "He did tell me to relay to you that he can't do that weird… communication thing you've been doing. I never got the chance to though. Apparently distance isn't so relative after all, when there's too much of it. Ida is on the other side of the Milky Way from Pegasus, you know. Orilla and Atlantis seem to have a bit of a time difference too."

Jack blinked, and frowned. "They took him to Ida?" he then asked with disbelief and worry, not liking the sound of this turn of events at all. "Why? And you better tell me that he consented to it because if he didn't --"

"He did. Teddy did too. Thor and Heimdall were their personal escorts even," the General answered. "Heimdall did the preliminary examinations in Earth's orbit on board Thor's ship, and apparently… Harry and Teddy might really have what they need. But they couldn't do what they needed to on a ship, didn't have the right equipment on board. Harry thought it through and they decided to go right way. Get it over quickly and all."

"Get it over quickly? You call a month getting it over quickly?" Jack asked, pinching the bridge of his nose. "When are they coming back, old man?"

"At first it was supposed to be a week, but they had to extend it for some reason -- again, Harry agreed to it, so don't bite my head off. There was talk of six weeks. They've been gone for a month now, so…" There was a pause. "In a week or so you should know."

"I hate you very much right now," Jack grumbled.

"Stop acting like the universe revolves around you, brat," the General answered back snappily. "This is a bit bigger than you are, especially if they really can save Thor's race thanks to those two. And stop using intergalactic gating for phone calls."

With that, the gate disconnected. With an annoyed huff Jack turned and stalked out of the gate room before Weir could start asking him any pointed questions. He could see the General's point, he really could. But he didn't like the fact that Harry had gone without saying anything to him. He didn't like it one bit.

 

* * *

 

"Are you intentionally trying to get me mad?" Jack asked when finally, after six weeks of mental silence, his dreams had another occupant. The righteous fury was somewhat dampened by the fact that he had thrown his arms around the man and was now holding him close. "You could've said something, let me know that you were going. You know how worried I was?"

"I'm sorry, Jonathan," Harry sighed, resting his forehead against Jack's. "It all happened so quickly, I didn't have the time for the long meditation needed for contacting you, and then I realised that we were already out of reach."

"How does that work anyway? One galactic void is easy to cross, but not two?" Jack raised his eyebrows confusedly. "I thought that distance didn't matter to you that much."

"Well, if you were on Earth I would only need to reach for you to contact you and it wouldn't take even a minute… but when you are in Pegasus it takes me three hours of meditation and reaching," Harry shrugged. "You never wondered why our discussions only last for one hour at most? It's my limit. When I was in Ida it would've taken me seven hours of meditation and then I would've gotten no sleep at all. And we were rather busy working so skipping sleep was out of the question."

Jack sighed and closed his eyes. He still didn't like it at all. "But you're back on Earth now. And please tell me you're done with the Asgard?"

"Yes," Harry answered with a smile. "We're done."

"How did it go anyway? No, start from the beginning. I want to know about the preliminary tests on Earth."

"Well, we were in orbit to be exact, but…" Harry chuckled before launching into a quiet explanation, starting with how Harry agreed to General O'Neill's proposal. He’d had his first meeting with Thor and Heimdall aboard Thor's ship and he had agreed to be scanned and even to give away some blood and tissue samples and such. After the Asgard had discovered that Harry was… different from your usual human, Harry had agreed to bring Teddy onto the ship as well.

"Teddy was a bit afraid of the Asgard at first, but he's… well, he's used to weird things so he got over it rather quickly. He eventually even tried to take the appearance of an Asgard," Harry frowned. "But it didn't work. All he managed was black eyes, a bald head and grey skin but essentially he remained human. Soon after that the Asgard figured out that Teddy's abilities are limited to human characteristics."

"Blue hair is a human characteristic?" Jack raised his eyebrows.

"Apparently," the other shrugged. "But anyway… after they tested Teddy they asked us if we would be willing to visit their home galaxy for a while so that they could run more thorough tests and do some experiments. Not on us, but with our gene samples," he quickly assured, seeing to worried look on Jack's face. "I agreed to it because, well… their need to find a solution to their cloning problem was too big for me to ignore."

"But it's their problem, not yours," Jack pointed out.

"You don't get it. I'm a telepath -- and they have massive minds. I could not block them out," Harry bowed his head a bit and closed his eyes. "They are determined and they feel guilty. They know that they are to blame for what is happening to their race… and they are afraid. Terrified even."

"Of dying?" Jack frowned. "Well, they've been kinda immortal for a while; I guess that death might scare them a bit."

"No, not of death, they have all accepted death. They are afraid of fading away without a sound. Like the Ancients did. They are afraid that in ten thousand years no one will really remember them," Harry shook his head. "Why do you think they have been fighting the Goa'uld for the Protected Planets Treaty even though they have been for a long time busy with the Replicators? They want to be remembered once they're gone."

"Woah," Jack murmured after a moment of silence. "And you could feel that? When you were with them?"

"All the time. Eventually I got terrified by the prospect of them vanishing as well… one of the side effects of being a telepath I suppose," the black haired man sighed and smiled sadly. "They tried to hide it, but they revered Teddy because of his abilities and his youth. You wouldn't even believe what sort of pain they feel because there is no such thing as children among the Asgard. Because there are no new generations."

Jack looked at him worriedly for a moment before sighing. "Did they get what they needed?" he asked quietly. "Can they cure their race with your DNA?"

Harry smiled. "They think they can. A mixture of mine and Teddy, in fact. Teddy's abilities to transform and adapt and my genetic knowledge --"

"Whoa! Genetic knowledge?" Jack blinked sharply. "You have genetic knowledge? Like the Goa'uld?"

"Yes, and no," Harry chuckled. "It's just a language I know and can speak though I never learned it. It's something I gained through a mutation of sorts back in my world, an ability which has since became mine. Apparently I would pass it onto my children if I had any. The Asgard think that they can use it as a way of passing some of their knowledge to their young, if they ever get the ability of sexual reproduction that is."

Jack blinked. "And they think they can? I mean… reproduce like humans do."

"Possibly. Apparently they have an ancient Asgard frozen in suspended animation. With his DNA and mine and Teddy's… they are on the right track," Harry smiled almost happily, as if the idea cheered him personally. And it probably did.

"So… we might see some Asgard babies in the future," Jack grinned widely at the mental image of Thor pushing a stroller around. "That is a… surprisingly cute thought."

Harry chuckled in answer. "They still have some work before they get to that point, but maybe… yeah." He grinned amusedly. "General O'Neill already offered to buy Thor and Heimdall baby manuals."

Jack snickered, easily imagining how that would've gone. Allowing the amusement to fade a little, he captured Harry's eyes with his. "I see now why you did it, but I'm still a bit mad at you for being out of contact for so long. The next time you do something like that, would you please give me a call before you go?"

"I will," Harry sighed with a smile, closing his eyes and just leaning onto Jack. "And I missed you too."

Jack didn't answer, merely captured the man's lips with his own, relieved that the whole thing had been solved.

 

* * *

 

Again things settled into their tracks. Harry gave him those psychic dreams a lot more often than before, probably trying to appease Jack, but he wasn't about to say no to it. They went through the whole ordeal with Asgard a few times until Jack was finally able to let the matter slide. _'I guess after my, ah, creation, I don't trust those guys as much as I used to,'_ he mused to himself before shaking the thought off.

For a while everything was calm. They got word from Daedalus, informing them that it was on its way back to Atlantis with new supplies and such. Jack continued to work on and off on various things, mostly training new Jumper pilots and trying to keep the Jumpers together. Despite the belief Colonel Sheppard and his team seemed to have, they didn't have an unlimited supply of Puddle Jumpers. Thanks to working with Zelenka so much he was steadily getting some understanding of the Ancient language, so also instructed people with that.

Then Sheppard and his team did their usual trick and went missing while on mission. Major Lorne was sent out to investigate but with little result. But then McKay rushed out of the gate hooked up on the very same Wraith enzyme-stuff that had driven Ford nuts back during the siege. Hearing him babble hysterically would've been amusing in any other situation and for any other reason, but right then it was just as fascinating to watch as a train wreck.

Daedalus arrived a bit sooner than expected because Weir had asked for their help and when McKay managed to get his head clear they headed out. Apparently Ford had gotten Sheppard, Teyla and Ronon to join him on a rather foolish mission to destroy a Wraith ship, hooking Teyla and Ronon to the enzyme somewhere along the way. It ended nicely, Sheppard managed to sick two Wraith hives at each other and got them to destroy each other, but Ford either got himself blown up or he escaped.

"You know, this is why I'm happy not to be on an off world team," Zelenka mused to Jack as Beckett patched Sheppard's up. "Alien technology and such I can deal with, but this? No."

"Hm," Jack nodded in understanding. He had personal experience with… stuff that made people stronger, faster and in the end stupider. Though with his case it had been an armband, not some juice from a space vampire's hand-glands. "Getting hurt, cracking ribs -- turning into a bug…? Yeah, I'm happy I don't have to do that stuff too. Not anymore anyway."

"But that wasn't you, exactly."

"Yeah but I remember it all like it was me," Jack shrugged. No matter what anyone said, it had been _him_. Just… it wasn't him anymore.

Other things happened as well and Jack shared everything with Harry in his dreams, telling him of the mundane thing like the repairs and such and of the time dilation field Sheppard got himself trapped in during another off world mission. He told about the things they had learned from the Ancient data base and how Teyla kept kicking his ass in stick fighting -- and how he didn't even want to go against Ronon because he sent people to the infirmary every day.

Harry on other hand told him about how he was just about to finish his fifth book, finally, and of the test results they got from the Asgard. Some people on Earth were now aware of Harry and his abilities and his stay with the Asgard, but it was only a small handful of people who worked in Home World Security. Harry and Teddy were currently even more classified than the Stargate program. It comforted Jack quite a bit.

Then Harry gave him some bad news.

"According to General O'Neill some people called the Trust have, uh, found out about Teddy and me," Harry told him during one dream. "The General got word about it before they managed to do anything, but he thinks that if they can, they’ll kidnap us. Apparently we are Hok'taur, which is something they want."

"Hok'taur, it means advanced human," Jack mumbled before realising. Teddy and Harry really were Hok'taur. They were exactly what Nirrti had been trying to make -- except they hadn't been made, they had naturally evolved to be what they were. That made them invaluable to any Goa'uld. A host with super human powers. And the Trust had been taken over by the Goa'uld. "Oh my god, they really would try to kidnap you. Are you aright? Where are you right now?"

Harry smiled reassuringly. "Teddy and I are staying in the SGC right now," he said. "Some of the personnel have been made aware of our situation, but not all. Generals Landry and O'Neill are trying to come up with a safe place for us," he sighed. "But right now it seems like we can't go home for a while."

"That sucks," Jack muttered before realising something. "Oh man, this is my fault. If I hadn't introduced you to the old man, none of this would have happened. No one would know about you and you'd be happily living your life like you did before."

"Don’t think of it like that. If you hadn't, I wouldn't have been able to lend my assistance to the Asgard," Harry said. "Besides, Teddy likes it here."

"He likes it in the SGC?"

"Yes. It might have something to do with the Stargate and the fact that SG1 have been telling him stories of their off world travels," the black haired man chuckled. "Teddy’s quite taken with Teal'c and Colonel Mitchell. And Doctor Jackson has been telling him all sorts of stories as well, so… he's definitely not bored on the base."

"I can imagine," Jack murmured, though he didn't like the idea as much as he should've. SG1 would take good care of Harry and Teddy, there was doubt about that, but… there was something about that thought that just bothered him. _'Maybe I'm just jealous,'_ he thought with dismay.

"No need to be," Harry answered the unspoken thought, leaning in to press their foreheads together. Harry really seemed to like the Athosian gesture. "I'm with _you_."

"Only in my dreams," Jack sighed but allowed a small smile. Harry got a thoughtful look about his face at the sound of the words but he didn't say anything.

The next day Weir informed them that SGC would be sending two refugees from Earth to live in Atlantis.

 

* * *

 

The three weeks had been pure torture for Jack, especially since Harry couldn't contact him in hyperspace. To know that Harry was on his way there made Jack more than a little giddy, a fact which many didn't fail to point out to him. He didn't care and he didn't tell them why he was so giddy either. Instead he concentrated on trying to pass his time as quickly as possible. Still… the three weeks were long. And on top of that the Daedalus was two days late in the end.

But finally the time came. Caldwell informed from orbit that he would be beaming down to the gate room with the two refugees right away so that Weir, Sheppard, McKay and possibly Beckett too could be debriefed about the situation. Jack himself was of course part of the debriefing too.

How he kept himself from grapping Harry and Teddy into his arms when they appeared in the control room, he had no idea. But seeing them again was such a relief that he almost fell over. Harry hadn't changed much, his hair was still a mess, he was still too thin, he still had glasses and his eyes were still really bright. Teddy had grown a bit but other wise he too looked like he hadn't changed.

"We were expecting you two days ago, Colonel," Weir greeted the commander of Daedalus while Harry and Teddy looked around in the room with wonder on their faces. "I trust everything is alright?"

"There was a bit of a snag along the way but it was dealt with," Caldwell assured. "We can discuss it in a moment. Doctor Weir, allow me to introduce you to your refugees," he then said, motioning towards the two who quickly turned their attention away from the Stargate. "These are Harry Potter and his son, Ted Lupin."

"Welcome to Atlantis," Weir said, though she seemed confused. She had probably been expecting aliens or maybe some public figure but both Harry and Teddy looked human and neither was well known. "I must admit, I am mighty curious as to why you need to seek sanctuary from another galaxy."

 "Just a safety precaution. A few individuals in the Milky Way galaxy have shown an… unhealthy interest towards us," Harry answered with his hand resting on Teddy's shoulder, giving her a brief smile. Then he turned his eyes to Jack. "Hello, Jonathan."

"Hi Harry," Jack nodded, the urge to embrace the man growing stronger. He somehow managed to hold it back -- making a scene in the gate room probably wasn't a good idea. Especially since it was Harry's and Teddy's first day there. "You too, Teddy. How was the trip?"

"Uneventful mostly," Harry answered.

"The Asgard ships are faster," Teddy added.

"Well, they are a lot smarter than we are, and they’ve had more time to make their ships faster," Jack shrugged. "But we're getting there."

"You know each other?" Weir asked with surprise.

"Oh, yes," Harry answered, throwing a smile at Jack. "Quite well in fact."

"How about that debriefing?" Caldwell asked and soon after they made their way to the briefing room, Jonathan quickly taking a seat beside Teddy so that the boy was between him and Harry.

"So, uh. Who are you?" McKay asked Harry. He gained some admonishing looks from others in the room which he, in his usual style, completely ignored. "Well, they gotta be important for SGC to send them all the way here. I mean… they wouldn't offer sanctuary in Atlantis just for anyone, right?"

"Rodney, how about we let the man himself speak?" Sheppard asked with his eyebrows raised.

Harry smiled amusedly at them. "Very well. My name is Harry James Potter, I'm a fantasy book author, psychic and originally from another reality," he said calmly, before brushing his hand through Teddy's hair. "And this is Ted Remus Lupin, who is metamorphic, will one day be a psychic as well and is also from another reality."

"Uh… what?"

"He's not lying," Caldwell spoke when questioning stares turned to him. "They really are from an alternate Earth, sent to our reality by some sort of energy burst. Ever since then they have been living in our reality, trying not to make too much noise about themselves," he raised his eyebrows at Harry who nodded in agreement.

"I'm sorry, but… _what_?" McKay said, shaking his head, looking between Harry and Teddy. "Psychic? You mean you can read minds?"

"I can also ignite and to a certain extend control fire, move objects without touching them as long as they are not too heavy, I have some measure of extra sensory abilities and recently I have gotten quite skilled with healing," Harry nodded, motioning towards Jack. "Of which Jonathan is the proof."

" _You_ healed him?" Weir asked. "It wasn't the Asgard?"

Harry shook his head while Sheppard leaned forward curiously. "A psychic from another reality? Does this mean that in your reality there are more psychics?"

"Not many, only a tiny fraction of my world's population had these powers. And they were not like my current abilities," Harry answered, shaking his head. "The conditions on my reality were different. My Earth had some sort of natural energy which amplified powers such as mine. It is missing from your reality and my powers have been severely diminished due to that."

"Some sort of EM-field or maybe…" McKay trailed away. "Wait, why didn't we know anything about this?  And are you here just because you're a psychic?"

"It's been kept quiet for now," Harry answered calmly. "General O'Neill has known of us for over half a year now and he was kind enough to keep it a secret. Jonathan on other hand has known for two and half years, though he wasn't aware of our abilities until much later," he motioned towards Jack who smirked awkwardly at the others. Harry continued, "And we are here because it was deemed too dangerous for us to stay on Earth."

Caldwell nodded. "Recently they've been aiding the Asgard in their genetic studies. Somehow the Trust found out about it, about them and their abilities," the Colonel said. "General O'Neill figured that if the Trust could, they would try to kidnap Mister Potter and his son in order to make them hosts for the Goa'uld. Since they are essentially Hok'taur."

"Hok-what?" Sheppard asked.

"I recall that file -- fascinating stuff. Apparently back in the Milky Way the Goa'uld have been looking for a way to make us more evolved so that they would have more powerful hosts," Beckett explained. "I think they were aiming for humans with psychic powers. They were called Hok-taur, advanced humans if memory serves."

"So… General O'Neill opted to send you here since this galaxy has no Goa'uld?" Weir asked softly.

"Yes, it was my idea originally. It wasn't entirely selfless on his part though. He didn't like the idea of a Goa'uld with a host like me. Nor did anyone else who was informed about me," Harry said dryly. "They thought that this was the best option for everyone."

"It was a good thing too," Caldwell added. "Just a day before we were supposed to depart originally, Mister Potter discovered a… Goa'uld infiltration on my ship."

"Really?" Weir asked with widened eyes.

"Yes. We believe that it was the Trust behind it. Except they weren't after Mister Potter or his son, but Atlantis. It was their indention to destroy it, so that the Wraith could never get to the Milky Way," Caldwell said. "Thankfully Mister Potter discovered the Goa'uld before our departure, and the Tok'ra were able to remove it before any damage was done."

"How did you discover it?" Jack asked curiously.

"Even when I'm not actively listening, I can feel the presence of consciousness and thoughts. Two minds in one body can make a telepath a bit curious," Harry shrugged. "When I figured that one of the two consciousnesses was being suppressed by the other, I informed General O'Neill of my observations."

"Who was it? The person implanted with a Goa'uld?" McKay asked.

"It was me," Caldwell answered, making the room fall into silence for a moment.

"I am not completely certain if we should be having these sorts of conversations with the wee lad in here," Beckett then said, motioning at Teddy who blinked sharply in return.

"Teddy was there when it happened, and I make it a point not to hide anything from him," Harry answered sternly. "He is old enough to understand and certainly old enough to keep secrets."

There was a short silence before Weir spoke. "Hmm… I think it's safe to say that we will continue these discussions later on, but since you have only just arrived…" she eyed Jack. "Jonathan, I imagine you'd be willing to arrange Mister Potter and his son proper living quarters?"

"I'd love to," Jack answered, standing up. After thanking Weir for taking them in, Harry and Teddy followed him. "I can't believe you're really here," he said to the two as the doors to the briefing room closed behind them. "And you're both okay being here?"

"Atlantis is cool. Not as cool as Orilla, but still cool," Teddy added, looking around with wide eyes.

"He really took to the Asgard," Harry answered amusedly, his hand settling casually to Teddy's shoulder. The psychic looked up to his lover with a smile. "And we’re fine. You like this place well enough, so I'm sure we will get adjusted to it as well. In time."

"Hm," Jack nodded, glancing at him and then looking away. He really needed to get them out of the more crowded areas so that he could give Harry a proper welcome. "I hope you took some stuff with you because we don't exactly have shopping malls here in the Pegasus galaxy."

"I packed everything I knew we would need, though they are all still on the Daedalus. Colonel Caldwell promised to have his Marines deliver them once I have been assigned living quarters," Harry answered, looking at him thoughtfully. "Is there any chance for us to share our quarters, Jonathan?"

"Huh?" Jack turned to look at him with surprise. "You mean like… living together? Me and you and Teddy?"

"That is what I meant," Harry nodded calmly, seeming a bit amused by his reaction. "Or is it too soon?"

"Well, uh…" Jack frowned, wondering how he could explain military rules and beliefs. He wasn't in the military but half of Atlantis was and they most likely didn't see same-sex couples as acceptable. Weir wouldn't care; Sheppard and McKay certainly wouldn't either, but the rest….

"Ah, I see," Harry murmured, looking away with a shake of his head. "For people with such advanced technology at their command, your people come across surprisingly backwards at times."

Jack grimaced, looking at him apologetically. "It's different in your original reality?"

"Perhaps not in general, but though we had our backwards thoughts and old fashioned notions that made absolutely no sense, gender or sexuality discrimination was never truly part of our society in any manner. Of course, that society also had no religion which seems often to be the source of most discrimination in these matters."

 _'That explains few things, I guess,'_ Jack mused. "I could, maybe, move into quarters near the ones I selected for you," he offered.

"You have already selected our quarters?" Harry raised his eyebrows with surprise while Teddy looked at Jack eagerly.

"I've been waiting for you to come here for three weeks, and I needed a bit of a distraction," Jack grinned a bit embarrassedly as they came to the transporter. "Have I shown you how to use these things?" He then asked, not sure if they had used the transporters in his dreams.

"Yes, but explain it anyway, Teddy does not have my experience."

Jack did, showing them how to use the transporters and pointing out the transporters they would most likely have to use. Then they made their way to the area where Jack had selected Harry's and Teddy's living areas. They were similar in design to Harry's apartment at Colorado Springs -- two bedrooms, a bathroom and a room which was sort of like a living room. Jack had arranged some furniture there -- beds, a few tables, chairs and such.

"People here usually eat at the mess hall," Jack explained the lack of kitchen. "And so far we haven't actually found a single kitchen in this place. The ancients probably didn't need them -- had other ways of getting something to eat, I guess."

"But they did need bathrooms," Harry noted out after examining the bathroom while Teddy went to check out the bedrooms. "There is no shower?"

"The water comes from the ceiling, there's a wheel like button there, you turn it to change the temperature," Jack explained.

"Oh. That's interesting," Harry mused. "Where does this place get its water from?"

"From the ocean. There's some filter system that takes the salt and stuff like that out of it. This place has the cleanest water I've ever tasted too."

"I bet," Harry mused, leaving the bathrooms to follow Teddy in bedroom-examinations. Jack followed him as well and smiled at the way Harry eyed over the room. "Well, this one is obviously mine," the black haired man said at the sight of the king-sized bed. He gave Jack a pointed look. "How very discreet of you."

Jack grinned. "Can't blame a guy for wishful thinking, can you?" he asked slyly.

"I could, but I think I chose not to," Harry chuckled, stepping closer to him and slipping his hands around Jack's waist. "You chose a good place for us. Thank you."

"My pleasure," Jack assured while wrapping his arms around the other mans shoulders and leaning in to kiss him briefly. Then, when Harry leaned against him, he captured the other's lips in a slightly deeper and longer kiss. "I'm really happy that you're here. Worried, because of the Wraith and the war and all, but… happy."

"I'm happy to be here," Harry answered, their foreheads once more pressed together. "Really happy."

Jack eyed his contently closed eyes for a moment before smiling slowly. He really wanted to share these rooms with Harry and Teddy, wanted to share his mornings and evenings with them and curl against his lover during the nights. It seemed like something he could happily spend the rest of his life doing. "You know that I love you, right?" he blurted out suddenly.

Harry's lips stretched into wider smile. "Yes, I do," he said fondly. "But it's lovely to hear you say it," he then added before shifting closer and initiating another kiss, this one deeper and sweeter than the ones before. "I love you too, Jonathan."

"This place is amazing!" Teddy rushed to them from his room, his exclamation breaking them apart. "Dad, you gotta see this, I got my own balcony!"

"You got Teddy a balcony?" Harry asked worriedly as the kid tugged him towards the other room.

"It has a sturdy baluster," Jack assured, following them to Teddy's room with a smile. "I thought that we could set up the telescope there. You know, in case you brought it with you. And if you didn't we can just get Zelenka to build one."

"I see," Harry answered just before he was dragged to the balcony. "Oh, now this is a view," he remarked, leaning forward to see. Jack grinned at the look of wonder on his and Teddy's face, happy to be able to please them. "Yes, this would be a good place for a telescope," Harry mused, looking up. "And the Pegasus galaxy has plenty of stars we haven't had the chance to see…."

Jack grinned, quickly making a mental note to take the two to the hologram room sometime soon. Teddy would love that place.

 

* * *

 

Word of Harry's and Teddy's abilities and origin spread through Atlantis like wild fire, until Harry didn't have to introduce himself to anyone and everyone were always asking if Harry was reading their minds. Some asked for a demonstration of Harry's talents and if they could be taught, but Harry usually gave very polite negative answers. The natives of Pegasus like Teyla and Ronon seemed to regard Harry with some revered suspicion, seeing Harry as some form of half-Ancient or something similar, but that passed quickly as well and eventually people got used to Harry's and Teddy's presence.

Beckett, who had of course gotten his copies of the research material from the Asgard, gave Harry and Teddy a physical examination of his own, during which he found out something Jack hadn't known. "You do know that Teddy is not your biological son, right?" the Doctor asked Harry carefully.

"I do," Harry answered with an easy nod.

"He's not?" Jack asked with shock. "Why didn't you tell me? Does he know?"

"Of course he does," Harry nodded again. "And I suppose it didn't matter in the end. I'm Teddy's godfather, and in my world it is the duty of the godparent to take the parent's place in case both of a child's parents die. Teddy's parents are both dead, therefore I am his father."

"Huh," Jack blinked. "So, his mother and you never… you know."

"No," the psychic shook his head. "I like to think that we were good friends, but that is all."

Teddy seemed to adjust to living in Atlantis with surprising ease, despite the lack of children his age. Spending time with the Asgard might've helped him there and also Harry had raised him to be very open minded and accepting. His eyes did brighten with excitement, however, when Jack suggested introducing him to some of the Athosian kids on the mainland.

Harry eventually got a 'part time job' at the Atlantis kitchen, now and then helping the poor Marines who cooked in turns. Very soon after people started looking forward to the times when Harry was helping around the kitchen -- Harry was no gourmet cook but damn if he wasn't better than most of the Marines.

Harry also wrote a lot, finishing his book in no time and starting another. The script was sent to Earth in a data burst, SGC would deliver it to Harry's editor. He also started writing something called "Tales of Atlantis," which, Jack suspected, were his notes of their fair city. Jack had a slight suspicion that the old man General might've asked Harry to write something like that for the future day of declassification but he said nothing of it. Harry seemed content with the task anyway.

Sheppard's team went off world like they always did. They found a sister ship to Atlantis with had apparently been badly damaged during the war -- Sheppard was almost made king during that mission but he turned it down. They got Jumpers and drones out of the mission though. Then they found pods with alien consciousnesses in them, consciousnesses which then took over Sheppard and Weir who then used Atlantis as their play ground in a deadly game of hide and seek.

"Is it always like this here?" Harry asked after they had been subdued and the consciousnesses had left them. "It's normal for the leaders to get possessed and end up trying to kill each other?"

"Well… that's a first one of that exact problem, but yeah. There's always something funky happening around here," Jack shrugged. "You’ll get used to it pretty soon."

The Genii had a little coup d'etat and Beckett perfected his retrovirus treatment which would possibly turn a Wraith into a human. They even tested it on a Wraith they captured, though Harry did not seem to like the idea too much. "I have to wonder about the ethics of this," he just murmured before apparently starting to pretend that he didn't even know about the experimentation.

The experiment ended badly. The Wraith-turned-human, whom they had named Michael, ended up escaping and kidnapping Teyla. Sheppard and Ronon found Teyla in time, but the cost of the whole thing was heavy. The Wraith now probably knew that Atlantis was still around.

Sometime after the people of Atlantis had saved the entire world's population from a nearly apocalyptic volcano eruption -- and gotten permission to use their neat, though barely working, Ancient war ship thanks to their efforts -- Jack finally gave up and moved his stuff into Harry's rooms. No one seemed to notice it though, probably because they had been spending so much time together anyway. And if there were people who were against it, they said nothing. But then again, going against a psychic? Not a good idea. Especially one as keen on protecting his family as Harry -- and Jack was privileged to be part of said family.

Even though there was the whole war-with-the-Wraith thing, things were good. Jack watched over him like a hawk while Harry made friends with some of the expedition members and had long conversations with Kate Heightmeyer about the differences between psychology and mind-healing and the technicalities and ethics of telepathy. The psychic also joined Teyla in meditation sessions now and then -- and after Harry learned about the Athosian tea, they also started to share specific tea times. Jack was happy to skip those sessions -- tea really wasn't his drink.

Teddy on other hand started to hero-worship Ronon for some reason. The boy even made himself dreadlocks over it -- green and blue dreadlocks to be exact -- which for a few days sent Harry into peals of laughter every time he saw his son. Ronon on other hand was so flattered -- which he of course didn't show -- that he started teaching Teddy how to fight. Well he did, up until Harry found out about it.

Despite everything, it was possibly the most enjoyable time the clone of Jack O'Neill had experienced so far. Every night he drew Harry into his arms and was happy that he had gone to high school, happy that Loki had created him, happy that he had been denied from returning to his old life. And even though it was cruel of him, he was happy that Harry and Teddy had been banished to his world. If none of those things had happened, he would've never met Harry.

And while holding his psychic from another reality close, he wondered about the future. One day they would defeat the Wraith and all other enemies, one day Thor would have a little Asgard baby to take care off, one day they would have safe galaxies to live in. One day the Stargate program and everything involved would be declassified and Harry's book of Atlantis would be a best seller for dozens of weeks. One day Teddy would grow and have little metamorphic children of his own for Harry and Jack to call grandchildren.

Right now they didn't have those things, but Jack was damned if he wasn't more than happy with what he had.


	5. Chapter 5

Jack blinked sharply, looking around himself with confusion. _'I could swear I went to bed in Atlantis,'_ he thought with a frown. Yet there was no Atlantis in sight. Instead he was standing on a busy street -- a worryingly medieval looking busy street with shops that sold bundles of dried herbs, parchment scrolls, quills, brooms and stuff like that. Plenty of Pegasus's planets had primitive market places like this, but this one was too busy and too small to be one of them. People in Pegasus always made sure that the streets were wide enough for quick evacuation in case of a Wraith attack. Also none of the shops seemed to sell weapons.

Scratching his head, Jack looked at the people around him. They didn't dress like Pegasus's natives did either. The clothing of these people were designed neither for escape nor fighting, or ever durability. Long heavy looking robes warm but not overly functional in the battlefield.

"Harry! Hey, Harry!" someone called out, making Jack whirl around quickly. His eyes widened slightly at the sight of his lover, except it isn't. No, this wasn't the twenty five year old he loved, instead this was a kid. He looked younger and some how… livelier than the Harry Jack knew. Also, he wasn't dressed in Harry's usual nondescript style, but instead he wore long flaming red robes with a badge attached to the chest.

"Harry?" Jack blinked and stepped forward to take a closer look. It really was Harry. Tilting his head a bit to the side, Jack waved his hand before Harry's eyes. There was no sign on the other's face that he could see Jack at all. _'Now this is odd. And aren't we looking, ugh… fashionable?'_ he thought, tilting his head to the side and raking his eyes up and down his lover's unusually young figure. _'Oh yeah, this is a whole new level of weird, right here.'_

"I see that it's been made official," a voice spoke out right next to him, making Jack jump with surprise. The speaker was the young man who had called Harry's name before. He was slightly scarred with light brown hair, wearing forest green robes. He was carrying a paper bag full of what looked like plants, some of them still green and others dried. "Congratulations, I knew you could do it."

"I was having a moment of weirdness revelation, you know?" Jack objected to the young man -- kid really -- folding his hands. The young man didn't seem to hear him any better than Harry could see him

"Thanks, Neville," Harry grinned, he too apparently deaf and blind when it came to Jack. "Kingsley's been pushing for it ever since Voldemort died -- hell, he would've made it official the moment he became Minister but thankfully Arthur managed to persuade him to at least wait until I had some measure of training."

"Kingsley? Arthur? _Voldemort_?" Jack spoke the last name with a great measure of disbelief. "Seriously, _Voldemort_?"

"Training which you finished in record of time," the scarred man, Neville, snorted. "You've got to be the only Auror in history to be made Department Head immediately after finishing training."

"Second actually, but I'm the only one who got there without ever writing NEWTs," Harry grimaced. "Kingsley's has to be insane to not let me back go to school to finish it -- I mean, he let Hermione back and we all know he's going make her the Head of the brand new Muggle Relations Department. If he manages to wring her away from Creature Control and Regulation, that is."

"And what the hell is a muggle?" Jack asked, looking between the two people who of course wouldn't answer. "Hey, explanation? Please?"

Neville snickered, completely unaware of Jack's pouting. "She's still at it?"

"Oh yes, I don't think she'll ever give up," Harry shook his head amusedly before looking at the bag in the other man's hands. "Going to see Hannah?" he asked knowingly while Jack threw his hands up in the air with an annoyed sigh.

"Ah… yeah. I got this for her," the brown haired young man pulled a pristine white flower from the bag. "It's her favourite," he grinned proudly before hiding the flower back to the bag. "Why are you here anyway? One would think you'd be busy today."

"Oh, I was busy but I managed to get away. I'm stopping by Gringotts and then I'm meeting Andromeda at the Cauldron. She was watching Teddy for me," Harry shrugged, the impressive robes rustling softly as he did.

"Teddy?" Jack perked up at the mention of something familiar -- finally.

"So… you're really going to raise Teddy by yourself?" Neville asked with a frown while Jack turned his curious eyes to Harry. The brown haired man continued. "I thought that Ginny wasn't going to…."

"Yeah. She, uh… wasn't," Harry frowned with a look of slight sadness in his eyes before shaking his head. "We broke up."

"You broke up with Ginny? Over Teddy?" Neville asked with a look of shock on his face. Jack on other hand frowned slightly, wondering who the hell Ginny was.

"Well, there were other problems too, but Teddy was the straw that broke the camel's back as it were," Jack's strangely young lover sighed before raising his eyes a bit sadly. "You're an orphan too so you know what it feels to be without a parent. I'm sure that Andromeda would do a marvellous job raising Teddy, but… it hasn't been that long since she lost Tonks and Ted both. She's still grieving them."

"Andromeda? Someone around here is actually named after a galaxy?" Jack asked and got no answer -- which he took as yes. "Cool."

"You think she's not up to take care of Teddy full time?" Neville asked worriedly.

"Whether she is or isn't, I don't want to burden her. Or Teddy. And I’ve got to admit, I fear that Andromeda might spend too much time comparing Teddy to Tonks," Harry sighed. "Already she's comparing the process of Teddy's abilities to Tonks' and he's just a kid."

"Ah. I see…."

 "I just feel that he needs an actual father -- he needs an… unconditional parent. The sort of parent I never got," Harry shook his head and then frowned. "Ginny, she… thought that Teddy would come between our, uh, life together, when I told her what I thought."

"Ouch," Neville grimaced. "Wrong thing to say to an orphan."

"Yeah. She also said something about us being too young before I stopped listening…." As Harry fell quiet for a moment, Jack wished he could've hugged his lover. He looked so forlorn. After a moment the black haired young man shook his head. "Well, with my job I can't be there for every single moment of the day for Teddy, being head of the Law Enforcement Department will keep me busy for a while, but I’ll be there as much as I can. And Andromeda will take care of Teddy when I can't. I think that's better for Teddy and Andromeda both."

"Hm… so this galaxy-woman is part of the family," Jack nodded in understanding. "I think I'm following this. A bit."

Neville nodded before smiling and reaching one hand to Harry's shoulder, squeezing it slightly. "You're a good person, Harry. The best one I've ever known. You'll be one hell of a father for Teddy. Seriously, he couldn't have a better dad."

"Listen to the man, he's got a point," Jack quickly added, reaching out to pat Harry's shoulder. His hand passed right through, making him pause. "Okay, that's creepy," he muttered, waving his hand through his youthified lover.

Not noticing the hand in his chest, Harry smiled and nodded. "Thanks, Neville," he said with honest gratitude before straightening his shoulders. "Well, I think I've kept you away from your beloved girlfriend long enough," he said while Jack pulled his hand away with a shiver. "Tell Hannah I'll be by a bit later, alright?"

"I will," the other man nodded. "It was good seeing you."

"You too Neville. Take care."

Giving the brown haired young man one final glance, Jack hurried after Harry who was making his way through the crowd. "You know, this is starting to creep me out a bit," he said conversationally. "So, uh… this one of your psychic dreams or is… you really can't hear me, huh?" he frowned as Harry made no sign of listening. "Oh boy," he muttered with trepidation and looked onwards.

People parted from Harry's way respectfully and at first Jack thought that it was because of Harry's clothing. But then he realised that they were all muttering hellos to Harry -- and every single one of them seemed to know Harry's name. Harry answered their greetings with his own ones, but didn't stop.

Jack followed his young lover to an impressive building with marble pillars in its front. It also had doors made of precious metals but Jack didn't have much time to admire them as Harry sped up the steps. Inside the building there was hall filled with counters, all of them tended by small and rather ugly creatures with long noses, big ears and sharp teeth.

"Yikes!" Jack muttered, staring at the weird creature with wide eyes. "What the hell?"

Without any pleasantries Harry walked up to the nearest desk and pulled out a scroll from inside his robes. "Message from Minister Kingsley," the youth said almost coolly, handing the scroll to the beast behind the desk. "And I would like to make a withdrawal."

Jack stepped beside him and bent to look into the creature’s dark eyes. "Ugh. You're an ugly thing, aren't ya?"

"Your key, Mister Potter?" the beast demanded sharply, making Jack shift back. Harry revealed a ring of keys, showing one small key in it. The creature looked at it and then nodded. "Very good sir. Girduk! Escort Mister Potter to his vault."

What followed that was the wildest and longest rollercoaster ride Jack had ever sat in, except it wasn't a roller coaster. After dozens or maybe hundreds of stalagmites and stalactites had rushed by, the cart they were in slowed down and they came to a small door. The beast that had been in charge of the cart opened the door with Harry's key, revealing mounds of gold, silver and copper coins inside.

While Jack gaped at the riches inside the vault, Harry climbed up and scooped a generous amount of gold into a satchel he had carried in his pocket. After getting enough he tied the bag and sat back down in the cart. "I'm done," he said simply ad the beast quickly closed the door. The ride back up was just as wild as the ride down had been.

 _'This is a bit like a bizarre 3D movie or something,'_ Jack mused while following Harry out of the fancy building -- which was probably a bank or something -- and out to the street again. It was a dream, it had to be… but at the same time it didn't quite feel like one. Shaking his head and deciding to think about it later Jack hurried after the young version of his lover as he crossed the street.

They came to a wall. Harry raised his hand towards it and it seemed to shift away from his touch, forming a doorway behind which there was a small alley and a door. _'Woah, that's the sort of power Harry had in his old world?'_ Jack wondered, eyeing the doorway. _'That was pretty cool.'_

Harry walked up to the door and into what looked like a very old tavern. Salutations and greetings welcomed Harry into the tavern, where Jack could see the young man from before talking to a pretty blonde girl. Neville had apparently given the flower to the girl who was now cradling it gently with a happy blush on her cheeks.

"Heh. Lucky guy," Jack mused approvingly before getting distracted by the way the pretty blonde girl was cleaning the counter. She was directing a rag with her finger while the rag itself seemed to move on its own making short sweeps over the counter.

Then Jack started noticing that all around him people were doing similar things -- one man was stirring his tea with movements of his fingers while a woman near by examined a rip in her robe's hem before snapping her fingers at it and making it fix itself. "Okay, that's a wow," he said, his eyes widening a bit when one man changed the shape of his plate somehow. "Very wow. Hey, Harry, was your society really like this? People doing all sort of weird cool stuff all the time?"

Again not hearing him, Harry greeted the people inside with smiles before turning his attention to a woman sitting in the corner. She was beautiful with long brown hair and kind eyes, but with _that_ look in her eyes -- the same look Jack had seen in Sarah's eyes after Charlie had died. In her arms the woman was holding a very energetic child who had wild bright green hair.

"There you are," the woman said as she saw Harry. She quickly swept her eyes oven the young man. "Ah, I knew you'd look good in Auror robes."

"Hullo, Andromeda," Harry smiled to the woman, bending down to kiss her cheek while Jack eyed the galaxy-woman thoughtfully. As his lover collected the child from her arms, Jack had concluded that she was too old for Harry.

"And 'lo to you too, Teddy," Harry greeted the boy. "Did you have fun with grandma?" Teddy gave him the smile unique to kids who had yet to grow a full set of teeth. The sight made Jack grin as well. Baby Teddy was just as cute as he had imagined.

"He was a bundle of energy," the galaxy-woman assured him with a chuckle and an amused shake of her head. "He always is, just like his mother at the age. 'Dora never settled down either."

Jack was probably the only one who saw the slightest look of annoyance that briefly surfaced in Harry's eyes before he sat down. "I'm sure he inherited a lot from Nymphadora," he answered, settling the boy to sit in his lap. " In addition to an affinity for crazy hair colours, of course."

The galaxy-woman chuckled. "At his age 'Dora was all yellow and red," she said, shaking her head fondly before starting to get up. "Well, I better head home. I fed Teddy just before we came here and he managed to make a mess of my kitchen, again. I want to clean it up before it gets dark."

"Good luck with it. And thank you for looking after him on such short notice," Harry said. "I might need you to watch him the day after tomorrow too, I'll let you know tomorrow, alright?"

"It's alright, I'm always free to watch my grandson," the galaxy-woman said, giving Harry and baby Teddy a kiss. "Have a good day, you two."

"You too, Andromeda," Harry said, shifting baby Teddy to his arms. "Teddy, say bye to grandma," he said.

"Bye bye g'anma!" the boy called after the woman, getting a chuckle from Harry and Jack both.

"Well then, what shall we do today?" Harry spoke to the child in his arms, completely ignoring the looks people were giving to him in the tavern. Jack smiled fondly and took the seat where the woman had been sitting. "We have all evening to ourselves," the younger version of his lover continued. "All evening to play anything we want. Is there something you'd like to play, Teddy?"

"Blocks!" the boy cried happily.

Harry grinned in answer. "Then we'll play with blocks," he said. "But first daddy wants something to eat. Do you think you can sit still while daddy eats?" he looked down at the kid who grinned up at him and cheerfully shook his head. Harry laughed. "I didn't think so."

As Harry ate, chatting with Teddy and trying to keep the kid entertained, Jack was the first one who saw the blonde man walk into the tavern. The man gave Harry and Teddy a look of loathing and pulled something from his sleeve before everything broke into screams of terror and rushing movement as everyone stumbled to get away from the man. Jack couldn't see exactly what the blonde man did as Harry turned around with surprise.

The last thing he saw before sharp, blinding light took everything was how Harry hugged Teddy close and turned, protecting the child with his body. Next Jack saw a flashing image of the two he loved the most lying unconscious on dirty, abandoned alley before the vision faded away.

Then Jack found himself on Atlantis and in his bed with Harry lying beside him and the light of the alien moon shedding its light through the window. _'Well, that movie sucked, I didn't even get to see the ending,'_ he thought hazily. Taking a deep, confused breath he glanced around in the dark room before turning his eyes to his lover. It seemed like his abrupt awakening hadn't disturbed Harry who was sleeping like a log with one arm thrown across Jack's chest

Sighing softly Jack settled down with a frown on his face. _'I really should be more alarmed by freaky dreams,'_ he thought before snorting softly. _'Well, on the other hand, I am sleeping with a man who has the ability to affect my dreams how ever he chooses.'_ He allowed the thought to stray and thought back to the dream which was quickly fading from his memory.

 Somehow he could almost imagine how Harry had woken up in a strange world that was missing the elements familiar to him. _'Well, he had a satchel full of gold, so he wasn't exactly poor or anything. Maybe he exchanged the gold and got started like that….'_ But Jack still had to wonder how the first weeks and months had been for them. Had Harry tried looking for his own world, had he tried to return?

 _'If he did, he obviously didn't find a way. If he had, he wouldn't be here….'_ Turning his eyes to his lover, Jack pondered it for a while before shaking his head. It was way too late for this. He reached to place a kiss to Harry's brow before shifting into a more comfortable position. Why was he thinking about it anyway? He could just ask Harry about it in the morning.


End file.
